Long Awaited Reunion
by InuyashaGirl2610
Summary: Naraku has devised a plan using someone from Inuyasha's past (and it's not Kikyou). Also on mm.org and my own site
1. Prologue: Shared Visions of the Past

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Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or any of the characters in the manga/anime. However, there is an original character in here, so I do own her (I haven't seen her name used before, and she is original, so don't write me saying you came up with her first). 

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Key:

~*~*~*~ = scene change

"Example" = spoken words

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Prologue: Shared Visions of the Past

"Inuyasha!"

It was the last thing he heard before the arrow speeding towards him took him in the heart, pinning him to the tree behind him.

"Kikyou?!…How…dare you," was all he could say as his world went black. Then he heard it - the sadistic laughter coming from the shadows, taunting him. He recognized the hated voice - Naraku.

With a silent scream, Inuyasha was jolted from sleep, breathing heavily. "Not this dream again," he thought to himself as he tried to settle his racing heart. When he finally managed to calm himself, he leaned back against the trunk of the tree he was sitting in sighing to himself, "Why do I have to keep reliving that day??"

Little did the hanyou know, that not too far away, there was another who was reliving that very same day in her dreams, the only difference being she could not wake herself up.

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In a forest only about two days away from where Inuyasha and his group was camped, there was a nightmare taking place, much like the one that our favourite hanyou had just experienced, however there was some variation…

"Inuyasha!"

She heard someone call his name, and instantly recognized it as the miko that had won the said hanyou's heart. But what confused her was the sheer hatred that emanated from the woman's voice. She then heard what she thought was the sound of an arrow flying through the air. When she heard the arrow make contact with it's target, she also heard something that made her heart stop beating.

"Kikyou?!…How…dare you."

She ran towards the voices as quickly as she could. When she reached the scene she stopped and froze in her tracks. There, pinned to a tree with an arrow through his heart was Inuyasha, who was now apparently dead. She stared for a moment, unable to register what she saw before her. When she finally came to her senses, there was only one thing that she was feeling - complete and utter hatred. She quickly turned around, facing Inuyasha's attacker, Kikyou, the miko who had just fallen to her knees from what she could guess was a fatal wound.

"Kikyou!!! You bitch!! How dare you do this to him!! How dare you kill my brother!!!"

At that moment the nightmare ended, but the dreamer did not wake. Instead, the nightmare began again, replaying every moment from the beginning over and over again in the dreamer's mind. This was how it had been, ever minute, of every day, for the past 51 years for the female inu-hanyou, pinned to a tree, with an arrow in her heart.

Standing on the ground just in front of her looking up, was a man with long, raven coloured hair, wearing a white baboon skin. He had an evil smile on his face as he said to the seemingly _peacefully _sleeping hanyou, 

"Soon, very soon, you will be what finally rids me of that accursed Inuyasha and his group of pathetic friends. Yes, you will be the one to rid me of your troublesome brother, my dear Inukigo.


	2. Chapter 1: The Awakening

Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha, bla, bla, bla, you get the point.

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Key:

~*~*~*~ = scene change

"Example" = spoken words

'_Example_' = thoughts

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Chapter 1: Awakening

"Mou, Inuyasha! Really, what's your problem this morning?? Just because you're grumpy doesn't mean you can take it out on us!" These were the opinions of a very pissed off Kagome, who along with Sango, Miroku, Shippou, and Kirara, had been rudely awakened and hurried along all morning by a very cranky Inuyasha.

After the nightmare that he'd had the previous night, Inuyasha didn't fall back to sleep. Despite the fact that he had managed to calm himself down, he just couldn't manage to get back to sleep, thus resulting in his less then cheery mood that morning. At the crack of dawn he had decided that he'd had enough, and if he couldn't sleep, neither would his comrades.

"Keh!! Shut-up wench! I'll do whatever the hell I feel like doin'. Besides, if I had left you alone you would have slept the day away, and I wanted to get going early so we could find that Shikon shard that's rumoured to be around here." 

"So what?! You didn't have to be so rude and demanding when you woke us up did you? And what gave you the idea that you could call me wench, you big jerk?! Osuwari!!!"

All that could be heard from the angry hanyou were a very long string of muffled curses, as yet another argument had been won by Kagome with that one little word that forced Inuyasha into an instant face-plant and made him eat a considerable amount of dirt. Kagome simply walked around Inuyasha's fallen form and continued on her way, not giving him a second glance.

As the spell started to wear off and Inuyasha slowly regained the ability to stand up, he unconsciously sniffed the air, as he often did out of habit. But as he started sniffing, he caught wind of something very strange. It was a vaguely familiar smell, but something that he could not place. The fact that he couldn't remember this scent was starting to bother him. Kagome was the first to notice him falling behind the group.

"Hey, Inuyasha? Is something wrong?" She had a worried expression on her face as she walked back to stand beside him. "Did you catch the scent of something?? Is it bad??" she questioned him nervously when she saw the serious expression on his face.

"I do smell something," he replied, "but it doesn't smell like an enemy. I don't know what it is, but for some reason I know that I've smelled it before, I just can't place it. It's really weird."

He started to wander around the clearing that they were standing in, sniffing as he went, trying to get an idea as to which direction the smell was coming from. He finally stopped when he came to the edge of the dense forest at the far side of the clearing. "It's definitely coming from somewhere in there." he told the group, who were following him around curiously.

"Do you really think that we should go and see what it is Inuyasha?" questioned Miroku. "I mean, if it doesn't smell dangerous then it really doesn't concern us does it?" Inuyasha looked at the monk, contemplating his suggestion.

"It may not smell dangerous, but it sure smells strange. I want to go and figure why this scent seems so damn familiar to me. It's driving me crazy not being able to figure this out!" Inuyasha was obviously starting to become frustrated in his current lapse in memory, and the more he took in that scent, the more he wanted to go a find out what it's source was.

"What if it only smells harmless, but is really a trap? It's a possibility isn't it?" Sango was now taking the opportunity to voice her concerns to her friends.

"Sango does make a valid point Inuyasha. It could very well be a trap…" Kagome started to say as trailed off a bit as she walked closer to Inuyasha and the edge of the forest. She had begun to feel a very familiar tugging sensation as she drew neared to the forest, and she knew exactly what it meant.

"Kagome, you ok??" Inuyasha said as he looked down at her questioningly. She had a very worried look on her face and he was starting to get concerned.

"I sense jewel shards coming from inside the forest," she replied, "It's pretty faint but from here I can sense some jewel shards, although I can't tell how many yet."

"Well, I guess that settles it. We're going in." Inuyasha stated. '_And I'm definitely gonna find out what that scent is coming from_' he thought to himself.

"I guess there's no arguing with you now that the jewel is involved. We'd better get going." Miroku sighed as he went to join the rest of the group. And with that, they headed off into the thick forest.

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Naraku was sitting on the grass in front of the tree which Inu was pinned to. He was looking into Kanna's mirror and was very pleased when he saw the group of shard hunters had taken the bait and were heading towards him at that very moment. As soon as they had entered the forest, he had waved Kanna away and then just sat there with his thoughts.

His plan had already been set into motion. He had went to great lengths to make sure that his scent was hidden from the inu-hanyou's sensitive nose, but that Inukigo's scent made it's way to him. 

He turned slightly to regard the female inu-hanyou pinned to the tree beside him and smirked. By the time the sun set, Inuyasha would be close enough to his sister that it would trigger the release of the spell that kept her in eternal sleep. At that time, his plan would really be well underway.

Naraku stood up to get a better look at the sleeping hanyou and started to smile evilly. '_Soon, my dear Inukigo,_' he thought to himself, '_soon you will finally be reunited with your brother, but it won't be the kind of reunion that neither you nor he expects!_'

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It had been a long day and the group of shard hunters finally decided to make camp for the night. They had made good time that day, and Inuyasha and Kagome was sure that they would reach their goal sometime around mid-afternoon the next day judging from how both the weird smell and the pull from the Shikon shards had gotten progressively stronger over the course of the day.

Inuyasha was still rather frustrated with himself. Never before had he ever had such difficultly distinguishing a smell! It had become more familiar to him as it had gotten stronger, but he still couldn't remember why. '_Dammit!!_' he swore inwardly.

The group had already finished their meal for the evening, and now everyone was just sitting around thinking about what they might encounter the next day. Not long after that everyone decided that they should get some rest for the day ahead. Miroku and Sango were not far away from each other, although Sango was just out of groping range and Miroku was sporting a bright red hand print on his face after a little incident just before they decided to turn in. Kagome and Shippou were sharing Kagome's sleeping bag, and Inuyasha was in his usual spot - a tree in which he had a clear view of the entire group.

He liked being able to keep an eye on his friends while they were asleep, especially Kagome. '_Speaking of Kagome_' he thought to himself, '_She hasn't fallen asleep yet, and she seems restless about something._'

After confirming that the rest of his friends were indeed sleeping, Inuyasha silently jumped from the tree he was in and slowly walked over to where Kagome was lying on the ground. He was very careful not to make a sound so Miroku and Sango didn't wake up and see his concern over Kagome.

'_The last thing I need right now is that baka houshi making fun of me and getting hentai ideas in his head._' he thought to himself as he stopped just behind Kagome.

"Ooi, Kagome," he said softly, "daijoubou ka? You should be asleep by now."

Kagome rolled over to look at him as he knelt down closer to her. "Yeah, I'm ok," she began, "but I have this weird, unsettling feeling. Like something bad is going to happen tomorrow when we find whatever it is we're looking for." She sighed loudly. "Guess I sound pretty stupid, huh?"

"No, you don't sound stupid." he replied. "It isn't stupid to trust you're instincts. If it makes you feel any better I'm having the same feeling."

"Arigato, Inuyasha." she said with a smile on her face.

"I-It's no big deal," he stuttered as a small blush crept across his face. He was glad that it was dark so she couldn't see how embarrassed he was. "Just try to get some sleep now ok? You're going to need to be rested if our bad feelings turn out to be justified."

"Hai. Oh, and Inuyasha,"

"Yeah?" he said as he walked back to his tree.

"You should take your own advice and get some sleep. I know you didn't get much last night."

He just stared at her for a second, and then gave a good natured "Keh!" as he jumped into the tree.

Kagome let out a small giggle and called after him, "Goodnight, Inuyasha."

"Goodnight, Kagome." he replied with a smile on his face.

And with that they both drifted off to sleep.

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As the last members of the shard hunting group went to sleep, not far away, deep in the forest someone else was just beginning to stir. What was remarkable about this event was that this particular someone hadn't so much as twitched for the last 51 years.

Naraku looked up at the hanyou that was still pinned to the tree and smirked when she started to show signs of life.

"She will wake soon," he said to himself. "I should leave before her senses return to her. If she catches me here now the entire plan could be ruined." With that he darted off into the darkness of the forest.

Moments later, the hanyou's nose and ears started to twitch, and then without warning she started awake with a small yelp. She was breathing heavily, and as she calmed herself she took in her surroundings.

"Where am I? What's going on?" she said out loud, a little panicked. She then remembered exactly what was happening.

"Wait, if I'm awake, then that means…" she trailed off for a second before she could finally voice her thoughts, "that means that Inuyasha is awake again, and that he's not far away! I'll finally get to see my brother again!" she said happily, but not too loudly, for fear that there may be someone around who would decide that she would be easy prey, pinned to the tree as she was. She decided that she would just smile to herself, and happily wait until Inuyasha found her and helped her get unsealed from the tree.

In the shadows, Naraku smirked to himself. Soon, he would put the next step of his plan into action.


	3. Chapter 2: Encounters and Explanations

Disclaimer: How many times do I have to tell you people, I do not own Inuyasha!

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Key:

~*~*~*~ = scene change

~~~~~~~ = same scene, time passed

"Example" = spoken words

'_Example_' = thoughts

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Chapter 2: Encounters and Explanations

It was just before dawn the next morning when Naraku decided that it was time to make his move. He slowly began to walk towards the sealed inu-hanyou with a smirk on his face. When she came into view he started to laugh inwardly at the expression that crossed the girl's face. She had seen him, and as he watched the look of shock on her face turned to pure happiness, and he could swear that she looked like she might cry. He kept walking, keeping a slow pace until he was directly in front of her, within arms reach.

He looked her directly in the eye, and with a grin on his face, calmly said to her, "Hello again, sister."

"Inuyasha, brother. I can't believe it, I'm so happy to see that you're awake again!" Inukigo exclaimed with pure joy at who she believed to be her brother.

Naraku laughed inwardly again and complemented himself on his Inuyasha disguise. The girl was completely fooled, just like Kikyou had been when he used it against her 51 years before.

He was stirred from his thoughts when the hanyou girl in front of him spoke again.

"Inuyasha, my brother, now that you're here, you have to share some of your energy with me so I can break this seal and get off of this tree." She smiled and looked and him expectantly. She couldn't wait to be able to move and hold her brother in her arms again.

This was exactly what Naraku had been waiting for, and he made sure to take full advantage of it.

"Now why the hell would I want to do something like that!" he yelled at her coldly as he stared at her with emotionless eyes.

Inukigo was taken aback by her brother's hateful outburst. What was going on? Why did he sound as though he despised her?

"B-but Inuyasha…when I was sealed I was told that the only way it could be lifted was for me to receive an energy boost powerful enough to break it. With part of your energy added to my own, that would be no problem."

"What made you think that I wanted anything to do with you anymore, you stupid bitch?!" he yelled at her again, even more coldly than before.

Inukigo was again shocked by her brother's harsh words and started to lower her head. '_Good,_' thought Naraku, '_she's beginning to lose her faith and trust in her brother. This is going to work really well._'

"Inuyasha? I-I thought…I mean…you're my brother, I wanted to see you again so badly. I-I thought you would want the same." she managed to get out, trying to keep all weakness from her voice.

"Well, guess what, you thought wrong. You can't even begin to imagine how happy I was when my seal was broken a year ago. I was so relieved that you were nowhere in sight to start annoying me again." He knew that this was sure to get her attention.

At this remark Inukigo's head snapped up. "Y-you mean that you've been awake for a whole year?!" she yelled at him in disbelief, and Naraku swore that he heard a tinge of anger. '_He's been awake for an entire year, and he is just now coming to see me? What's worse is that he seems to have no intent to help me free myself!!_' Inukigo was beginning to glare angrily at her brother as a snarl crossed her lips.

"Yes, I've been awake that long. The only reason that I've come to you now is that I was nearby and caught your scent. When it seemed like it had been in one spot for a very long time I decided to come and investigate. Imagine my surprise seeing you pinned to that tree. You're pathetic!! Seeing you stuck there is actually quite amusing." he said as he started to laugh to at her.

That was it, she couldn't take it anymore.

"How dare you laugh at this, you bastard!! I purposely got myself sealed to this tree so I could be with you again whenever you woke up. I did this because I love you with all my heart and I couldn't bear to be separated from you." she was getting angrier as she spoke and hot tears were stinging her eyes, but she refused to cry in front of him.

Naraku started to laugh even harder, dropping Inukigo even deeper into despair and anger.

"Well, aren't you a fool!! I'm glad to be rid of you. I think I'll take my leave now. My group is not far away and I shouldn't leave them alone for too long." he turned and started to walk back the way he came. "Hope you can find some way to occupy yourself while you're stuck to that tree, I have the feeling you'll be there for quite awhile." he called back to her as he disappeared into the shadows of the forest.

"Damn you, Inuyasha!! You bastard!!" she screamed at him, full of rage. '_When I get down off of this tree you are going to pay for betraying me!!_'

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Inuyasha awoke with a start. He was sure he had heard someone call his name and curse on him, but couldn't figure out where it had come from. He dismissed it as a dream, although he didn't know who could have been cursing him. He noticed that the sun was just starting to come up, and considered waking up his friends so they could begin their day. Then he looked down at Kagome, and started smiling. '_She looks so peaceful when she sleeps, almost like she doesn't have a care in the world._' he thought to himself. He decided against waking the group up and chose to let them sleep. He admitted to himself that he had taken out his grumpiness on them yesterday morning and figured he should make it up to them by letting them sleep in, of course he would never admit that to them. He decided that he would take the opportunity to get a bit more rest in before their day started and leaned back against the tree, drifting back off to sleep, completely unaware of what was happening only a short ways away.

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Naraku was making his way back to the tree to which Inukigo was sealed. It had been an hour since he had left, and he was making sure that he was giving Inukigo plenty of time to absorb and dwell on what her 'brother' had said to her. He was very pleased when he caught sight of her - she was seething with emotional pain, and even after an hour she was still as angry as the moment he had left. '_Perfect,_' he thought to himself. '_her anger will make it easier for me to influence her actions with the Shikon shards once she is free of the tree._'

He stepped up to her, unnoticed, until he spoke in the gentlest and most considerate voice he could manage.

"Excuse me?? Do you need help with something, miss…?"

"Inukigo, and there is nothing that you could possibly help me with so if you would be so kind as to leave me in peace it would be greatly appreciated." she almost screamed at him.

"Inukigo-san is it? Well, that is quite a troublesome looking seal there, might I inquire about it? I may be able to help you."

"It's none of your damn business, now leave!" she yelled at him menacingly.

"But I must insist Inukigo-san. You see I am very knowledgeable when it comes to breaking seals. This particular one looks like it would be broken if you received a strong enough power boost, am I right?"

"You are correct." she replied a little more calmly than before. "That is how it can be broken. But I still don't see how you would possibly be able to help me."

"Ah, but I believe I can help you Inukigo-san," he said coolly, "with a few of these." He was holding up a Shikon shard for her to see.

"What is that?" she asked.

"This is a shard from the Shikon no Tama. I am sure you have heard of the jewel and it's powers before."

"I have. But why are you willing to give those to me? I don't even know who you are."

"Just think of them as a gift. You look like you have something that you desperately wish to fulfill, into which I will not pry, and I wish to aid you, since I have no real use for the shards myself."

She eyed him warily, considering his offer, then gave him her answer.

"Arigato, I accept your offer."

Naraku smiled and laughed inwardly at the girl's stupidity. Now she would be under his control.

"You're most welcome, Inukigo-san. Now, shall we see how many shards it will take to free you from that seal?" he questioned. 

She nodded her head for him to begin, and he proceeded to take out a handful of Shikon shards. He first shot two shards her way, one in each shoulder. She felt the surge of power go through her body, and was able to move her arms, but the seal stayed intact. Naraku proceeded to fire another shard at her, this time into her neck, which caused another surge of energy and enabled her to move her legs, but the seal continued to pin her to the tree. Naraku shot one final shard into her forehead, creating a small, but blinding flash of light, to which he had to shield his eyes. When he opened them, Inukigo was floating in the air momentarily, before falling to the ground on her hands and knees, gasping for breath as she adjusted to the new power in her body.

Naraku smirked and felt it was time to carefully bring up the subject of Inuyasha.

"Hmm…how strange. Now that I think about it, you look remarkable similar, actually identical, to a male inu-hanyou that I saw not too far away from here."

Inukigo's head shot up at this information. She was still breathing rather heavily, and started to push herself to her feet as she caught her breath.

"What did you say?? Which way? How far is he?" she grabbed Naraku by the front of his baboon pelt as she pressed him for this information.

He held up his hands defensively, not wanting to anger her further. She may not have been as

strong as him, but with four Shikon shards and her temper, she would have definitely done some serious damage.

"Please calm yourself, Inukigo-san," he said smoothly, causing her to take a deep breath and release him. "the inu-hanyou I'm referring to is about half a day's walk in that direction," pointing in the direction he had come from, "and is accompanied by a monk with a kazanna in his right hand, a skilled female demon exterminator and her demon cat partner, a young kitsune, and a powerful miko."

'_A miko?_' she thought to herself. No way it could be Kikyou, she saw her die.

"Arigato. May I ask you your name?"

"Yes, Naraku is what I am called."

"Well, Naraku, before I forget," she said as she walked away, "I know you gave me these shards because you have something against my brother, because you obviously wouldn't have given these up out of the goodness of your heart. I will return to pay you back for trying to trick me into doing your work for you. But right now I have something more important to deal with. Sayonara." And with that she took off through the trees.

Naraku was stunned for a moment at the fact that she had quickly figured out that he had intended to trick her, but decided to take the shards anyway. But this was only temporary as he smirked and started to chuckle. '_Little do you know, Inukigo-san, that with the Shikon shards that I have given you, I can intensify your feeling of anger towards your brother and easily turn it to hate without you even knowing of it. Before this day is over, you will have taken care of your brother for me, and then, thanks to the corrupted Shikon shards, I'll have complete control over your body._'

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The entire group of shard hunters were now awake and enjoying a peaceful breakfast. Even a normally grouchy inu-hanyou was happily eating, or rather inhaling, the cup of ramen that Kagome had offered him. Kagome was happy to see that he was in a good mood. She hated seeing him upset. As she sat there quietly eating her own meal, Kagome began to feel a familiar tugging feeling in the pit of her stomach - Shikon shards. She had been sensing them already, but now she could tell that there were four of them, and the feeling was getting stronger. Since they had not moved yet that morning it could only mean one thing, the shards were moving, and were coming straight at them.

Inuyasha looked over at Kagome, and noticed the worried expression that suddenly crossed her face.

"Ooi, Kagome, what's wrong??" he questioned her.

"The Shikon shards that I sensed earlier are moving. They're coming this way. Four of them."

This caught everyone's attention.

"Are you sure Kagome-chan? The shards are coming to us?" Sango asked.

"Hai, Sango-chan. The shards are definitely coming towards us and there are definitely four of them." Kagome replied.

"Inuyasha, what about that strange scent that you caught wind of yesterday? Has that changed any?" Miroku asked.

Inuyasha sniffed the air and gave Miroku a nod.

"Aa, it's definitely closer than it was a few minutes ago, and it's still getting stronger. But I still can't seem to place the smell. Maybe when we get a little closer to it I'll be able to remember what it is." Inuyasha replied.

"Then I guess we should go and meet this thing instead of giving it the chance to come here and catch us off guard." Miroku suggested.

There were no objections to this idea and everyone started packing up their supplies. When they were ready, Miroku, Sango, and Shippou hopped onto a transformed Kirara, and Kagome jumped onto Inuyasha's back. Inuyasha decided that he didn't want to waste any time and took off through the trees with Kirara close behind

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

They had travelled for about an hour, and whatever it was they were searching for was getting very close. They would come upon it within the next few minutes. Inuyasha was sniffing the air like he had for the hundredth time since they began running, trying to figure out what that strange scent was and why it was so familiar. Then all of a sudden it hit him and he stopped in his tracks. He took a deep breath through his nose, stood very still for a moment, and then his eyes went very wide.

"Inuyasha, what's the matter??" Kagome asked from her place on his back.

He didn't answer her right away but finally said quietly, just loud enough for her to hear, "I think I know what the strange scent is."

"Really? Well, what is it?"

Inuyasha wanted to be absolutely sure before he told her, so he needed a second opinion.

"Ooi! Runt! Come here! I need you're opinion on something." he yelled at Shippou.

Shippou came running from his perch on Kirara's head and climbed up to Inuyasha's shoulder.

"Sure, what do you want me to do?" the young kitsune asked.

"Just point you're nose that way, sniff, and tell me what you smell."

Shippou thought this was a rather strange request, but did as he was told and sniffed the air. He then turned to Inuyasha with a rather confused look on his face.

"What's this about Inuyasha? All I can smell that way is you."

"That's fine runt. That's all I needed to know."

Kagome looked at him very confused, as did Sango and Miroku, who had come closer as these events were taking place.

"Inuyasha, what's going on? What's all this supposed to mean?" Kagome asked.

"The scent that I've been picking up since yesterday is my scent, just like Shippou said." he replied.

"But how can that be possible? You're right here, and you haven't ever been in these woods before." she said, still very confused.

"I was getting to that. Shippou said it was my scent, and in a way he's right, but his nose isn't sensitive enough to pick up the difference between this scent and my own."

"And just what might this difference be?" she asked, becoming impatient.

"The difference is that this scent is coming from a female." he replied calmly.

"Nani!" they all yelled in unison.

Inuyasha winced at the sound of their combined voices, and was about to explain to them, when a female figure appeared in the path directly ahead of them. The girl looked at the group indifferently, before focusing her attention on Inuyasha. She smirked, and then coldly said,

"Hello again, brother."

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Well, that's it for the first two chapters. If you have any questions about the story so far, write a review and I'll give you the answers when I post again.

Constructive criticism is appreciated. I'll wait a day or two before I post again, so if anyone has any suggestions on how I can improve my fic, I can revise the next chapters before I post them.

Ja ne!!


	4. Chapter 3: Confrontation

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha, although I wish I did…*plays with his puppy ears*

************************************************************************

Key:

~*~*~*~ = scene change

~~~~~~~ = same scene, time passed

"Example" = spoken words

'_Example_' = thoughts

************************************************************************

Chapter 3: Confrontation

The entire group was shocked. About ten feet before them on the path was a female inu-hanyou, who had just referred to Inuyasha as her brother. Kagome was about to ask Inuyasha what the hell was going on, until she heard him speak in a very soft, questioning voice.

"Sister?"

'_Did he just call her sister? I guess that answers my question._' Kagome thought. The girl was an inu-hanyou, there was no doubt about that from the start. The pointed dog ears on her head were a dead give away. However, as Kagome looked more closely at the girl standing in front of them all of her doubts about her being Inuyasha's sister were put to rest. The hanyou looked exactly like Inuyasha. She had the same ears, the same eyes, the same face, the same hair. The only differences were that her features were obviously feminine, and her hair reached down to her knees. 

"Keh, who else but your twin sister looks exactly like you, baka."

And she also seemed to have Inuyasha's charming personality.

Kagome was then jolted from her thoughts.

"Inuyasha, she's the one who has the four Shikon shards that I was sensing!" she exclaimed.

"Nani? But how…" Inuyasha didn't even have time to finish his question, as he found himself grabbing onto Kagome as dodged to the right, keeping them both out of the reach of Inukigo's razor sharp claws. He was shocked, to say the least. His own sister had just took a swipe at him, and he could tell from the force with which her hand hit the ground where he was standing just moments before, that she had meant to do him serious physical harm, if not kill him. '_No way, she couldn't have been trying to do that. Could she?_' he thought to himself as recovered from his jump. He let Kagome go beside him, not once taking his eyes off Inukigo as he gazed at her warily.

"Inuyasha," Kagome said quietly, "what's going on? Isn't she you're sister? Why is she attacking you?"

"I have no idea. But I do intend to get to the bottom of this. Stay here. She might hurt you if you get in the way." he replied, but not once looking away from his sister, who by now was crouching in preparation to attack him again.

"Hai." '_This is so confusing. If she's really Inuyasha's sister, why would she be attacking him? I don't know for sure, but it seemed as if she really wanted to hit him with that last strike.' _Kagome thought to herself.

"Inukigo! What's going on, and why the hell are you attacking me?" Inuyasha questioned, very eager to get some sort of explanation out of the sister he hadn't seen in 51 years.

"What's the matter, didn't think that I would be able to come after you so soon?"

"Huh?" was everyone's response.

"What are you talking about?" Inuyasha asked.

He was then forced to quickly un-sheath Tetsusaiga to shield himself as Inukigo jumped at him, too fast for him to avoid, with her claws slashing.

"Don't. play. dumb. with. me. you. traitorous. bastard!" Inukigo yelled at him angrily between swipes.

"Traitor? What's going on Inukigo? I've never betrayed you!" Inuyasha yelled back as he put his weight behind the Tetsusaiga and used it to forcefully throw Inukigo away from him. She quickly righted herself, landing only a few feet away, ready to strike again.

Only a short distance away, Naraku was hiding in the shadows, watching as the confrontation between the twin hanyous took place. '_This is going very well. Inuyasha will surely not attack his own sister. And thanks to my influence and the Shikon shards that I gave her, Inukigo is acting on her amplified feelings of betrayal and anger, causing her to feel hate and attack Inuyasha in a way that she would never have been able to before. At this rate, Inuyasha will be dead by his sister's hand, and I'll easily be able to control Inukigo's mind with the Shikon shards then. I can have her kill Inuyasha's friends and steal the rest of the shards from them easily._' He smirked evilly, proud at himself for coming up with such a devious plan. He was then snapped out of his thoughts as Inu and Inuyasha began talking again, and happily turned his attention back to the fight playing out in front of him. 

"Oh really? And I suppose the things you said to me last night don't count as betrayal?"

"Nani? I never said anything to you last night, I haven't seen you in 51 years!"

"Don't bother lying to me Inuyasha, I'll make you pay for everything that I've endured over the past 51 years because of you!!"

"Inuyasha, what in the world is she talking about?" Kagome asked.

"I have no idea Kagome. Ooi, Inukigo! I'm not lying, and what do you mean 'what you've endured because of me.' What happened to you in the past 51 years that was so horrible?"

Inukigo smirked and took a step closer. "Do you really want to know? I guess that I could tell you. But first I have a question for you, brother. In the 50 years that you were sealed to that tree, did you have any nightmares?"

"Nightmares? No, there was nothing but darkness everywhere. What does that have to do with anything?"

"Hmm…no nightmares huh? I guess that I just wasn't as lucky as you were. I didn't get the luxury of peaceful sleep for 51 years, that's for sure."

"Nani?! Don't tell me that…you were sealed away too Inukigo."

"Yes, Inuyasha, I too was sealed to a tree for 51 years. And every minute, of every day for those 51 years I had to endure one particular nightmare. And do you know what that nightmare was? It was the day that you were sealed, when I found you pinned against that tree with an arrow in your heart. I thought that you were dead, stolen from me. And I have been reliving those feelings ever since in my nightmares."

The hot, stinging tears that had threatened to fall the night before while she was still pinned to the tree were back in Inukigo's eyes, but she willed them back, still refusing to let them fall.

"Oh my gosh, that's horrible. What an awful thing that must have been to keep experiencing over and over again." said Kagome sympathetically.

"Really? You think so? Don't sympathize with me miko. It's highly unlikely that you have ever experienced what I have, or ever will for that matter." Inukigo spat out coldly. '_She looks like Kikyou, but it's definitely not her. Lucky for her that I have no business with her then._' Inukigo thought to herself as she regarded Kagome.

"Inukigo, that's enough!! Leave Kagome out of this. I want to know, why the hell were you sealed 51 years ago?!" Inuyasha shouted.

"Forget it Inuyasha! I'm not going to bother explaining it to you. It won't do you any good to know anyway, because you're about to die!" Inukigo yelled as she again began to lash out at her brother.

Inuyasha was having a hard time blocking Inukigo's strikes. Unfortunately for him, her female frame made her a lot less bulky than him, allowing her to be faster and more agile. She was almost as strong as him to begin with, and now she had four Shikon shards along with the pure rage that she was fighting with, more than making up for the small difference in physical power.

'_What am I supposed to do? I can't keep fighting Inukigo like this._' Inuyasha thought. Then a plan came to mind. If he could some how manage to restrain her, he might be able to calm her down just enough to figure out the reason she had come to think that he had betrayed her. But he would need the other's help. Keeping his eyes on Inukigo, he proceeded to jump to Kagome's side and quickly explain his plan to her.

"Ok, Kagome here's the plan. Me, you, Sango, and Kirara are going to distract Inukigo, but not hurt her, long enough for Miroku to get some restraining ofudas around her wrists and ankles so I can talk to her. Got it?" Inuyasha asked. Kagome nodded her head. "Good. Now, you go tell the others the plan while I keep her busy." With that Inuyasha ran off towards his sister.

Kagome made it to the others and was explaining the plan as quickly as she could, when she was interrupted by a pain-filled scream. '_Oh no, that was Inuyasha!_' she screamed mentally as she turned around. She was right, it had been Inuyasha. "Inuyasha!!" she yelled at the top of her lungs.

"Kagome, stay there!!" Inuyasha yelled back at her from his place on the ground. Much to his surprise, Inukigo had managed to get a hit in, and a good one at that. She had almost shoved her hand completely through his stomach, and now she was standing over him, her right hand dripping with his blood. She then began to raise her hand, preparing to strike a fatal blow. He looked up at her, and for the first time since he couldn't remember how long, he feared for his life. His own sister was actually going to kill him.

Then Inukigo began to lunge forward, aiming for her brother's heart. As she was barrelling down on him she looked at his face and locked her eyes with his. And then she froze, wide-eyed, with her claws just an inch away from his chest. '_Fear? He's afraid of me? Why is he afraid?_' she thought to herself. She then looked at the hand poised over Inuyasha heart and was horrified by the sight of his blood on her hand.

"Inukigo?"

Inuyasha's voice saying her name snapped her back to reality and she sat back on her knees. She just sat there, still staring unblinking at her hand. She had hurt Inuyasha. She had hurt her brother. What had she become?

Inuyasha breathed a sigh of relief when Inukigo backed away from him. He slowly sat up, half because he didn't want to startle her, half because he had a rather large gaping wound in his stomach. He looked at her warily, still dumbstruck as to what had happened. '_What made her stop?_' he wondered.

"Inukigo?" he said again, softly, hoping to catch her attention, "Daijoubou ka?"

Inukigo shifted her gaze from her hand to his face, locking onto his eyes again. She looked at him questioningly. '_He looks so worried about me. After what I did to him, and what I was about to do, he's still worried about me?_' Tears started to well in her eyes, and she threw herself at Inuyasha's chest, grabbing onto his haori. She didn't try to stop herself from crying, she knew that it was pointless.

Inuyasha was a little shocked at seeing his sister's face flying into his chest, but was quick to recover from it and wrapped his arms around her tightly. '_This is the same as when _

Mother died.' he thought to himself. '_We were only seven then. She cried so hard and I held her just like this._'

"Inukigo?" he said, trying to get her to look up at him. He was disappointed when she refused to meet his gaze, but then he heard her voice, muffled by his haori.

"Inuyasha, gomen nasai. I-I don't know what I was doing. I was angry with you, but it got out of control. I was so overcome with rage that I lost myself in it. I couldn't stop. I…" Inuyasha cut her off with a soothing 'shhh'.

"Inukigo, it's ok. Don't worry about it alright." he then turned his head to see his friends walking towards them. Kagome knelt down behind him and put a hand on his shoulder.

"Inuyasha, are the both of you ok? Is everything over now?" she asked.

"Aa." he replied.

"Good. I think that I should probably take the Shikon shards out of her body now before they cause any more problems."

"That's a good idea. Inukigo, can you sit back for a minute and let Kagome take out the shards?"

Inukigo nodded into his chest, her sobbing pretty much gone, then leaned back from him and turned to face Kagome. Kagome proceeded to take the shards from Inukigo's neck and forehead, but ran into difficulty with the two in her shoulders. She moved to untie the front of Inukigo's top, turning to Sango as she did, giving her a familiar look. Sango caught on and in an instant one hentai monk was lying unconscious on the ground. Kagome didn't bother to look at Inuyasha, since she knew that he would turn away out of respect for his sister. After she had removed the shards in Inukigo's shoulders Kagome quickly pulled the girl's shirt back up and tied it. Just as she finished, Inukigo started to feel drained from the loss of the power of the Shikon shards, and slipped into unconsciousness, gently falling forward onto Kagome. Inuyasha became alarmed when his sister collapsed, but Kagome shushed and reassured him that she had fallen asleep from exhaustion. Inuyasha breathed a sigh of relief and carefully lifted Inukigo off of Kagome. Then, with Kagome's help, he managed to manoeuvre her onto his back.

"C'mon. We're going to go look for a safe place to camp." he announced.

No one argued with him, and they all set off to find a place where they could rest and find out exactly what had happened that day.

Still in the shadows, Naraku was seething with anger. They had ruined his plan and gotten four of his Shikon shards. Keeping in mind that he still had to hide his scent and youki from the group that was walking away from him, he calmed himself. He would come up with something else, and make them pay for being such a nuisance to him.


	5. Chapter 4: Making New Friends

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha, although I wish I did…*plays with his puppy ears*

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Key:

~*~*~*~ = scene change

~~~~~~~ = same scene, time passed

"Example" = spoken words

'_Example_' = thoughts

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Chapter 4: Making New Friends

It was early evening before Inuyasha decided that the small clearing that they had found was safe enough to stop and rest. Inukigo was still asleep, she hadn't so much as twitched her ears once through the entire day. Inuyasha was a little worried, but kept reassuring himself that the shards had taken a lot out of her, and that her body was recovering. When they had come across the clearing and began to settle in, Kagome took out her sleeping bag and gestured for Inuyasha to lay Inukigo down on it. He was quick to comply, and gently laid his sleeping sister down on the sleeping bag. He knelt there for a minute, until he was startled by a hand on his shoulder.

"Don't worry, Inuyasha. She'll be ok after she rests a while. Why don't you go help Miroku get some wood for the fire. I make sure nothing happens to her." Kagome said soothingly.

Inuyasha dwelled on her suggestion for a few moments, then he nodded, got to his feet, and followed the houshi who was just making his way out into the forest. 

Kagome watched as they left, then after a few minutes turned to look back down at the sleeping hanyou on the ground. '_I wonder what the story behind you is._' she thought to herself sadly, as she put her hand to Inukigo's forehead to brush the hair away from the girl's face. Kagome was startled to find that the hanyou's forehead was considerably warmer than it should have been and that she was starting to sweat.

"Oh no, she's coming down with a fever. Not good." Kagome said, loud enough for both Sango and Shippou to hear. They both turned to her with very concerned looks on their faces. Kagome didn't want to waste any time.

"Shippou-chan, could you get the herbs that I use for fevers, a cloth, and a bowl out of my backpack? And Sango-chan, can you go and get me some water?" she said quickly but politely. Both nodded their heads and quickly went about fulfilling their respective tasks. When they returned, she put some of the cool water into the bowl, dipped the cloth into it, wrung it out, and then placed it on Inu's forehead. She then realized she had a problem. 

"Darn it, I need to boil water so I can use the herbs. I hope Inuyasha and Miroku don't take too long collecting firewood." 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

About ten minutes after leaving camp, Miroku decided that they were far enough away from camp so that he could talk to Inuyasha without the hanyou becoming too self-conscious. He stopped walking and searching the ground for firewood, then went about picking up what he could see, while Inuyasha did the same. After about five minutes of silence he decided that he should finally strike up some conversation.

"So Inuyasha," Miroku started, trying not to agitate the hanyou, "why is it that none of us have ever heard about this sister before?" He half expected to receive a rather large smack on the head and have his question blown off with a 'Keh!', but was surprised when he heard Inuyasha release a sorrowful sounding sigh.

"I never mentioned her before because I didn't want to have to think about her again." he replied, then went back to picking up dry wood off the ground.

Miroku looked over at Inuyasha questioningly, and for the first time saw the rather hurt expression on his normally gruff looking face. Miroku took this as a sign that he shouldn't pry any deeper, mainly for fear of his own well-being. '_Perhaps Kagome-sama will be able to get more of an explanation out of him later_' he thought to himself, as he too went back to the task of collecting firewood.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

About half an hour later, Kagome was happy to see Inuyasha and Miroku return, each carrying an armful of firewood. She noticed that Miroku seemed to have no injuries, which meant either that for once, he had not tried to press Inuyasha for information about something that he didn't want to share, or that Inuyasha had actually managed to tolerate his questions. When she saw the rather sad looking expression on Inuyasha's face, she was entirely unsure of which of her guesses was right. '_I can't remember the last time I saw him looking so sad, that is if I ever saw him that sad._' It hurt her to see him that way, and she wanted to go and comfort him so badly, but decided against it. She knew that it would do no good since he would be too embarrassed by the presence of their friends to fully accept her gestures.

She then remembered the task at hand and quickly came back to her senses.

"Hey, Inuyasha, Miroku, could you two hurry and start the fire? I need to have hot water right away. Inukigo has come down with a fever, and I need to give her these herbs before it gets much worse." she called to them.

Inuyasha's head jolted up when he heard Kagome's words, and seeing the worried expression on his face, Miroku told him to go help Kagome tend to his sister and that he would take care of the fire. Inuyasha nodded gratefully, quickly dropping the firewood in his arms and running to take a seat next to Kagome. Kagome noticed the very concerned look that had come across his face, and once again placed a calming hand on his shoulder.

"She'll be ok. If she really is your sister I'm sure that she'll be rid of this fever in no time." she said smiling at him.

He looked over at her and returned her smile. "Arigato, Kagome."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kagome had been right. After Miroku got the fire going, she quickly boiled some water so she could mix the herbs and gave them to Inukigo. With the added effect of the herbs helping to fight the fever, Inukigo's body recovered from it in just over an hour. She was now sleeping peacefully again, much to the relief of everyone in the camp, especially Inuyasha.

Inuyasha hadn't budged from his spot next to Inukigo, but as soon as he was certain that her fever was gone, he had moved to sit against the base of a tree not to far from her. When she saw that Inuyasha had relaxed a bit, Kagome made some ramen for him, and joined him next to the tree as he made short work of it. That had been a few hours ago and now it was completely dark, except for the light coming from the fire. Miroku and Sango were sleeping not to far from each other, but Sango made sure that she was far enough away from Miroku so that he couldn't grope her in his sleep. Shippou, who had lost his usual spot in Kagome's sleeping bag, was now curled up next to Sango with Kirara. The only two left awake were Inuyasha and Kagome. Neither of them could seem to drift off to sleep.

"Ooi, Kagome, you don't need to stay up with me. You should just go to sleep." Inuyasha said gruffly.

"No, it's ok. I want to keep you company." she replied.

"Fine, do whatever you like."

Kagome looked over at him and saw the same hurt expression on his face as she had seen earlier that evening. '_He's thinking about the same thing he was when he came back from getting firewood with Miroku._' she thought to herself. At that time she had wanted so badly to comfort him. She looked around once quickly to make sure that their friends were definitely asleep, then looked back to Inuyasha, and hugged him. She wrapped both of her arms loosely around his neck from the side and rested her head on his shoulder.

Inuyasha was stunned for a moment when he felt Kagome's arms around him and the weight of her head on his shoulder. '_What is she doing?_' he wondered.

"Um…Kagome?" he questioned softly as he looked at her.

She looked up slightly so she could meet his gaze. "Onegai, Inuyasha, don't be sad anymore. I-I…don't like…to see you sad." 

'_She's worried about me? She wants to comfort me? No one, but my Mother, ever did this for me._' "Kagome…" he whispered softly. It was then Kagome's turn to be surprised when Inuyasha pulled her into his lap and returned her embrace, and proceeded to bury his face into the crook of her neck. '_Her scent…Why does it make me feel so calm?_' "…Arigato."

"Everything's alright, Inuyasha. Can you tell me what's wrong?" Kagome asked softly.

"I…don't know if I can." he replied.

"Onegai, Inuyasha. I want to know, because, I want to help you."

Inuyasha sighed. '_Being like this with her, it feels as if I can tell her anything. It's almost as if I want to tell her everything._' "Kagome, the truth is, I feel…guilty."

'_Guilty?_' "Guilty for what?" she asked quietly.

"Guilty for leaving Inukigo alone."

"Huh? Do you mean when Kikyou sealed you to the Goshinboku?"

"Yes, but not just that. From what she has said, she's been sealed 51 years, and that she was only awakened last night. That means that for a full year she's been sealed, and I've been free to wander around with you and the others."

"But Inuyasha, it's not your fault."

"I could have at least looked for her. When I woke up, her scent wasn't anywhere around and I haven't encountered it at all in the past year, so I assumed that she had either died or left and completely forgot about me. That's why I never mentioned her to you before. It hurt too much to bring up memories of her. And now, she's accused me of betraying her. I'm starting to think that she's right."

"Inuyasha, don't start thinking that way. There was no way that you could have known that she had been sealed. You did not betray her ok. When she wakes up tomorrow you can explain everything to her, and even apologize to her if it makes you feel better."

"Arigato, Kagome. I really appreciate this."

Kagome smiled. "You're welcome, Inuyasha." She tightened her hold around his neck while he tightened his arms around her as well. Then in just a few moments, both joined their friends in a deep and peaceful sleep.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Just as the sun was coming up Inuyasha was awoken from sleep by a quiet whimpering. He looked down at Kagome, who was still in his arms, and blushed for a moment before determining that the sounds weren't coming from her. He looked around the camp for a minute before laying his eyes on Inukigo, who seemed to be rather restless as her head shifted back and forth in her sleep. Fearing that there may be more wrong with her than just a simple nightmare, Inuyasha decided that it would be best to wake Kagome.

"Ooi, Kagome. Kagome, wake up." he whispered softly as he gently shook her.

"Hmm…Inuyasha? What's going on?" she asking sleepily.

"Inukigo is…"

He was interrupted when Inukigo gave a rather loud whine and started to toss and turn on the sleeping bag. Inuyasha and Kagome quickly got to their feet and ran to Inukigo. As they knelt beside her, she let out a cry and shot up, her eyes wide and panting heavily. Inukigo's cry instantly woke the up until now, sleeping Miroku, Sango, Shippou, and Kirara, and all four were quickly gathered around with concerned looks on their faces. Her eyes darted around to survey her surroundings, and once she recognized the faces around her, she started to calm down and her breathing slowed to a normal rate. She relaxed a bit, and sat back, then started to get a little nervous when she saw all the concerned faces looking at her.

"Ano…" she said quietly, "I know that you're all very concerned about me, and I'm grateful for that, demo, I don't really know all of you, and you're making me kinda nervous."

There was a chorus of 'Sorrys' and everyone shifted back a little bit to give Inukigo some breathing room. Inuyasha was the first to speak as he looked at his sister questioningly.

"Inukigo, are you ok?"

She looked up at him and then returned her gaze to the ground.

"My first night off of that tree, and I have the same nightmare that I was stuck in for 51 years." She gave a half-hearted smirk and looked back up at Inuyasha. "Oh well, I guess I should look on the bright side. At least I can wake up from it now if I want to." 

Kagome saw the hurt in Inukigo's eyes when she talked about her nightmare. Once she seemed to be relaxing again, Kagome got an idea.

"Sango-chan, did you say that you found a hot spring somewhere near here? Is it very far away?" she asked.

"Hai, Kagome-chan. It's only a few minutes walk. Why do you ask?" Sango replied.

"I figured that we could get in a quick bath while Inuyasha and Miroku go find some more wood and get a fire started. Shippou and Kirara can stay here and watch the camp. When we get back I can make something for everyone to eat. What do you think Inukigo? Do you want to come with me and Sango-chan?"

Inukigo's head shot up. She had been listening intently to this girl Kagome as she spoke, but was surprised when she was asked if she wanted to join her and the other girl Sango when they went to take a bath. She looked at Kagome and nodded sheepishly, and within minutes found herself being pulled up off the ground and led off by two very happy looking girls.

When they reached the edge of the campsite Kagome turned and yelled over her shoulder, "And no peeking. That means you Miroku!"

"I'm hurt Kagome-sama. I would never do such a thing.

To this he received a large thump on the head from a pissed of Inuyasha. "Yeah right, you lecherous houshi. Come on, lets go get that fire wood." he said as he took Miroku by the back of his collar and dragged him off in the opposite direction in which the girls were headed. Shippou and Kirara just stayed where they were and decided to go back to sleep while they waited for the rest of their group to return.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ 

After a few minutes walk, Kagome, Sango, and Inukigo had reached the hot spring. It was a big hot spring, with plenty of room for three people, and was rather deep in some places, with large flat rocks along the edges that made perfect places for sitting.

Inukigo felt very awkward. She had never before been invited to take a bath by a group of girls. She had always bathed alone because she was shunned and hated by everyone other than Inuyasha since her mother had died. She didn't even know these girls, and they were being so friendly to her, acting as though she was normal. '_This must be why Inuyasha is with them. They're all accepting and understanding people._' She gave a small smile. Kagome noticed this and smiled as well. '_She looks happy, I'm glad. Inuyasha will be glad that she's feeling better too._' Kagome thought to herself as both she and Sango lowered themselves into the spring.

"Inukigo-chan! You should come in too! The water is really nice and warm!" Kagome called.

"Kagome-chan is right Inukigo-chan. The water is very relaxing." said Sango.

Inukigo froze for a minute. Kagome and Sango both noticed her sharp intake of breath. They looked at each other nervously for a moment and then looked back to Inukigo on the shore.

"Inukigo-chan, daijoubou ka? Did we say something wrong?" Kagome asked.

"No," Inukigo replied softly as she rose her head, "it's just that, no one has ever called me Inukigo-chan before. Arigato…Kagome-chan and Sango-chan." '_They hardly know me, and yet they treat me as though they've known me for years. They're…being kind to me, and they seem to genuinely…care for me. Is…is this what it feels like to have friends?_' she thought as she happily lowered herself into the hot spring.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

About fifteen minutes later, Inuyasha and Miroku returned to camp after collecting wood for the fire. This time, it was Inuyasha's job to get the fire going, and while Inuyasha had his back turned, Miroku figured that it would be the perfect opportunity to go 'keep an eye' on the three girls bathing in the spring. Unfortunately for Miroku, Inuyasha heard him trying to sneak away before he even made it to the edge of the clearing.

"Don't bother you baka houshi. You won't even get as close as you usually do."

"Why, I have no idea as to what you mean Inuyasha." Miroku said feigning innocence.

"I mean that even if I don't stop you, which I will, you won't get anywhere near that hot spring with Inukigo there. She'll smell and hear you long before you get there. And you know how much trouble you'll be in if you get caught, don't you?"

Miroku's shoulders slumped at this new information, and it slowly dawned on him that he would probably never get a chance to peek on the bathing girls ever again, at least not while Inukigo was with them. He gave a sigh, then turned around to join Inuyasha by the now roaring camp fire. They sat there quietly for a few moments until Miroku decided to break the silence.

"Inuyasha, I've been wondering. Don't you think that it's strange that Inukigo came to possess four Shikon shards? She said that she had been sealed to a tree, so there is no possible way that she could have gotten them herself. It is most likely the case that they were given to her. And then there's the problem with her thinking that you betrayed her. It's all very confusing."

"Aa, I've been thinking about that too. I'm gonna ask her about all of this when they come back from the hot springs." Inuyasha replied, turning to face the fire again.

Miroku nodded and also turned his gaze to the fire. '_I hope that the person behind all this is not who I think it is._' he thought to himself warily.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Back at the hot springs, the three girls were still relaxing, and Kagome and Sango had offered to wash Inukigo's hair for her, joking that since it was so long (down to Inukigo's knees) it would probably take Inukigo a whole day to wash all that hair on her own. It had taken some coaxing on their part, but Inukigo had finally agreed to it, after Kagome and Sango had convinced her that shampoo was safe and they had promised to be careful of her ears. Once Kagome and Sango had started to lather the shampoo into her hair, Inukigo found it rather relaxing, and was soon giving off a very soft, almost unnoticeable purr-like growl. However, Kagome and Sango did noticed this and were rather shocked - a half-DOG demon, purring??

"Ano, Inukigo-chan, are you, purring?" Kagome asked.

"Only nekos purr, and I am, most definitely, no neko." Inukigo replied, sticking her nose in the air. "It's a soft growl that I don't really have any control over. It's just something that I do when I'm comfortable, that's all."

"I see. It's a nice sound regardless." Kagome said, then another thought came to mind. "Inukigo, can Inuyasha make that noise too?"

"Most likely, but I've never heard him do it. This is the first time that I've ever felt comfortable enough to do it since…" Inukigo paused, and Kagome noticed sadness in her eyes, "since our mother died."

"Oh, gomen ne, Inukigo-chan. We didn't mean to bring up bad memories for you." Kagome said as both she and Sango dropped their heads.

"It's alright. Don't either of you worry about it. Mother died a long time ago. I'm grateful that the two of you are making me feel as comfortable as I am."

Both girls smiled at Inukigo, and then at each other, giving a small smirk.

"Ok Inukigo-chan, it's time to rinse your hair!" Sango said happily.

"You might want to close your ears." said Kagome.

"Huh, what fo…" Inukigo didn't even have the chance to finish her question, as she was rather unexpectedly pushed under the water. She stayed under for a few moments, making sure that all the soap was out of her hair, then resurfaced with a rather sour look on her face. The look softened into a smile when she saw the pair of girls giggling hysterically in front of her, and she too was soon joining them in their laughter. '_I was right, this is what it feels like to have friends._' she thought to herself happily as she was dragged out of the spring by her two new friends. Kagome handed her a towel to dry off with, then they all got dressed and headed back to camp.

************************************************************************

I know that the idea of Inukigo coming down with a sudden fever is kinda corny, I just wanted to use it as a situation where Inuyasha could be concerned over her.

Inuyasha may also seem a little OOC, but here's the way I look at it; he just found his twin sister, who was his only family for about 11 years (according to this story). Wouldn't it be natural, even for Inuyasha, to openly show some affection towards her?

Anyways, same routine as last time: I'll post again in a day or two to give you guys time to review, and me time to revise anything that I have to change in the next two chapters.

Oh yeah, I also have an Inuyasha website, which is currently under heavy construction, that you guys may want to check out some time in the future. The address is .

Ja ne!


	6. Chapter 5: For the Love of a Brother

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha, nuff said

Key:

= Scene change

= same scene, time passed

"Example" = spoken words

'_Example_' = thoughts

Chapter 5: For the Love of a Brother

The three girls re-entered the camp, and Inukigo was rather dumbstruck by the sight that greeted her. Inuyasha was chasing the young kitsune, who Kagome had told her was called Shippou, in circles around the fire, yelling something about 'not giving advice on something you know nothing about,' and the houshi, who was named Miroku, was laughing and shaking his head, well off to the side and out of the way of the stampeding demons. She then noticed that Sango and Kagome were shaking their heads in much the same manner as the monk.

"Um…is this a common occurrence or something? You all seem like you've seen it so many times that it's normal behaviour." Inukigo said questioningly to Kagome and Sango.

"Unfortunately, you are correct Inukigo-chan. This is a common occurrence and normal behaviour for those two." Kagome said still shaking her head.

"Sadly, this is one of their better moments. It gets worse when that houshi becomes involved." Sango said.

Upon hearing himself mentioned by Sango, Miroku looked up and joined in their conversation.

"Why, my lovely Sango, I have no idea as to what you could possibly have meant by that statement."

"You know very well what I meant by it hentai." Sango retorted

Inukigo was rather confused. '_What in the world is going on here?_' she thought to herself.

Inuyasha had finally noticed that the girls had returned and gave up chasing Shippou. He watched as they made their way into camp, and Inukigo sat down next to the fire and shifted all her hair over one shoulder so the fire would dry it more quickly. '_She looks a lot happier than she did when she left with Kagome and Sango. That's good._' he thought to himself as he looked at his sister and smiled. Kagome noticed his smile and gave one of her own as she moved towards the fire with a large pot of water.

"I think that I'll make ramen for everyone, is that ok?" Kagome asked. Everyone nodded, except for Inukigo, who had a confused look on her face.

"Ra…men? What's ramen? I've never heard of it before." she asked, looking to Kagome.

"Oh, don't worry. Inuyasha can't get enough of it so I'm sure that you'll like it." Kagome replied.

Inukigo looked over to her brother, who nodded in agreement, then looked back to Kagome and nodded as well. With this, Kagome went about boiling the water, and then poured it into the individual cups of instant ramen. When the noodles were ready, Kagome passed them out to everyone. Inukigo looked at it suspiciously for a moment before taking a taste of the ramen and found that Kagome had been right, she liked this food very much. She also found that Kagome hadn't lied about Inuyasha's love for the noodles. He was, as usual, inhaling rather than eating his food. Inukigo just looked at him and sighed.

Inuyasha heard her sigh and looked up at her confused. "Nanda?" he asked, with a mouth half full of noodles.

Inukigo stared at him with half lidded eyes. "I see you haven't changed at all with regard to your eating habits. I guess some things will never change."

"And what's wrong with my eating habits?" he replied, not noticing that everyone else at camp was prepared to give him an answer to that question.

"To put it simply, Inuyasha, that mouth of yours is like a bottomless pit. Anyone who gets to close to it while you're eating has to be careful, or they could very well lose a limb."

Inuyasha just glared at her in annoyance, then shifted his glare to the rest of his friends when he heard them start to giggle. Not knowing how to respond, he gave a very intelligent sounding 'Keh!' and quickly downed the rest of his ramen. Inukigo just shook her head and finished her ramen as well.

When everyone had finished eating, Inuyasha decided that is was time for him to ask Inukigo the questions that had been bothering him all morning. He hoped that she was ready to talk, because he needed an explanation, but didn't want her to be upset again.

"Inukigo," he said calmly, waiting for her to turn her attention to him, "I was wondering if you can give me some kind of explanation as to what happened yesterday, and what happened to you 51 years ago."

Inukigo looked at him for a moment, contemplating his request, then shifted her gaze to the fire before she nodded her head in response. "Aa, I can tell you. What do you want to know first?"

"Um…let's see. How about you tell me why you were sealed away?"

"Very well, I guess that's as good a place as any to start. The reason I was sealed was because I 

chose, no, requested to be. After I found out that you weren't dead, but put into an eternal sleep, I wanted to be sealed away, so that there would be a chance that I would be with you again whenever you woke up."

"Inukigo…I…why would you do something like that?"

"Don't tell me you're that big a fool Inuyasha. I did it because you're my brother. We'd been together all of our lives, and you were the only family I had back then, except for Sesshomaru and you know what he was like. You're my twin brother, and I love you with all my heart. There was no way that I would have been able to live without you."

"Inukigo…how did you manage to get sealed? D-did…did Kikyou…" he was cut off by his sister.

"No Inuyasha, Kikyou was not the one who sealed me away." she paused for a moment before changing her sitting position so that her left knee was upright and her left arm draped over it. 

Inukigo then continued her answer to Inuyasha's question.

"On the day that you were sealed Inuyasha, I was furious. When I arrived Kikyou was still alive, I could see that she was already dying, but in seeing you and presuming you dead I was about to shorten the few moments of life she had left. Before I had the chance to carry out the action she explained to me that she hadn't killed you, but put you into an eternal sleep. Despite the fact that I wanted to see her dead then and there, I begged her to do the same to me. She said that she would, because she knew how much you meant to me and vice versa because of the things that you had told her about me, but she died before she had the chance to pull an arrow back in her bow."

"So if Kikyou died before she could seal you, how did you manage to get sealed?" Shippou asked curiously.

For this Shippou received a rather large thump on the head.

"Ow! Ooi, Inuyasha! What was that for!"

"That was for interrupting you little brat! Now keep your damn mouth shut or I'll do it again!"

"Inuyasha's right Shippou-chan. You shouldn't interrupt people when they're speaking, and this is very important. However," she said changing her tone, "that doesn't give you the right to hit him Inuyasha."

"Gomen, Kagome." Shippo said pouting

"Keh!"

Inukigo smiled and her eyes softened at the sight before her. The young kitsune was rather cute, despite the fact that he was equally annoying. '_Inuyasha really hasn't changed at all. He's just as childish and short tempered as he always was. Although his eyes are softer now. I wonder what caused that._' She would have giggled, but someone cleared their throat and brought her back to her senses.

"Excuse me, Inukigo" said Miroku, "could you possibly…" he was cut off by Sango, who finished his sentence, "finish telling us your story. We would really like to know what happened to you."

"Oh, gomen ne. I got distracted." Inukigo said, and continued with her explanation.

"Well, after Kikyou died I was devastated. I didn't think that there was anyway for me to be with you again Inuyasha. Then Kaede spoke up and told me that there was a houshi that lived in a temple in this forest that should be able to help me. I succeeded in finding him, and after I told him what had happened to me he agreed to grant my request." 

Inukigo stopped talking then. Judging by the tone that her voice had taken, Inuyasha guessed that there was something else, but Inukigo for some reason couldn't say it. He looked into her eyes and was shocked by the sadness that he saw there. '_That sadness is there again, just like before. What's bothering her so much?_' he thought to himself.

"Inukigo, keep going. I know there's something else."

Inukigo took a deep breath and willed herself too keep going.

"When the houshi was about to seal me, he explained the workings of the seal to me. He said that the portion of the seal that kept me asleep would be broken as soon as you entered this forest, and then I would need to receive a large boost of energy to break the seal, which I could gain by having you share some of you youki with me. I told him that I understood. Does that answer your question?" she added the last part with a bitter tone in her voice which surprised everyone.

"Aa, but I have another one. Yesterday you said that I betrayed you. How did you come up with that idea? I would never do something like that."

"How can you say that!" she spat, startling Inuyasha. "After what you said to me while I was pinned to the tree, how can you say that you never betrayed me?!"

"There you go again! I already told you, I never saw you pinned to a tree and I never said anything to you!"

"Inuyasha, I saw you with my own two eyes. You were standing within arm's length of me and said that you were 'grateful that I wasn't around when you woke up a year ago so I couldn't annoy you anymore.' How is that not betrayal, especially when you were supposed to know where I was?!"

"It's not betrayal because I was never there and never said those things…wait a minute…I was 

supposed to know where you were?"

"Aa, I also told the priest to relay a message about my sealing to Kaede, so that whenever you woke up, you could be told what happened to me. He agreed, and then shot me with the sealing arrow. That's why I got so angry when you came up to me and said that you had been free for a year and hadn't bothered to come look for me."

Everyone at camp could see how hurt Inukigo had become over the course of her explanation. Inuyasha really didn't want to ask her anymore questions right then for fear that she would begin to cry. Instead, he chose to think about what Inukigo had just said. '_Kaede was supposed to know where she was and tell me so I could go get her. But, Kaede hasn't even mentioned her once in the past year. This is really weird._' Miroku then decided to break the uncomfortable silence.

"Don't you think that this whole situation is rather familiar Inuyasha?"

"Huh? What are you gettin' at houshi?" Inuyasha asked.

"Doesn't this seem a whole lot like the 'make them hate each other so they try to kill each other' kind of plot?"

"You're right it does! Inuyasha, this almost seems like the same thing that happened between you and Kikyou doesn't it?!" Kagome shouted.

Inukigo looked up when she heard Kikyou's name. She was a little confused. '_What did Kagome mean by that? Didn't Kikyou betray my brother by sealing him with that arrow?_' She was awakened from her thoughts when Inuyasha started talking again.

"You're right Kagome, it does. That bastard, I'll bet anything that he's involved in this." Inukigo noticed that Inuyasha seemed to be getting angry, and was clenching his fists. '_Who is he talking about?_' she wondered, as Inuyasha turned to face her again.

"Inukigo, I have one last question. Who was it that gave you those four jewel shards?" Inuyasha had a feeling that he already knew the answer.

"He told me his name was…Naraku. Why?" Inukigo replied with a confused look on her face when she saw how everyone's expressions had gone rather dark.

"I knew it!! Figures that damned bastard would have a hand in this! I can't believe I didn't find it out sooner!" Inuyasha stood up and started to pace around the campsite, mumbling incoherent curses as he went. Inukigo was now more than a little confused after her brother's outburst. She determined that it was useless to ask him anything, now that he was in full blown cursing mode, so she directed her questions to the rest of the group.

"Um…would someone mind explaining this to me? I knew that Naraku had something against Inuyasha because he just gave me the jewel shards without any apparent reason, but what does he have to do with anything else? From the looks on all of your faces, you obviously know who he is."

"Hai, Inukigo," Miroku replied. "Unfortunately, we know him all to well."

The group, minus one still pissed off and cursing hanyou, went about telling Inukigo of their encounters with Naraku, how he was responsible for Miroku's kazanna, what he had done to Sango's village and her younger brother, and finally what he had done to Inuyasha and Kikyou 51 years before. Inukigo was more than a little shocked. There were so many things flying through her mind at that time. She looked over at Inuyasha, who was beginning to calm down, but still pacing, and tears began to well in her eyes. '_I can't believe that I thought he would do something like that to me. I fell for Naraku's stupid trick and lost the trust I had in my brother. How could I have been so blind?_' She stood up and slowly walked over to where Inuyasha was standing. He noticed her coming towards him and stopped what he was doing to watch her. When she reached him, she fixed her golden eyes on his, the tears that had welled up in her eyes were on the verge of falling. Inuyasha was then surprised when Inukigo leapt at him, wrapping her arms tightly around his waist and burying her face into his shoulder.

"Inuyasha, forgive me. I fell for his stupid trick and I doubted you. I'm so sorry that I ever believed those things and accused you of betraying me. Onegai, forgive me."

Inuyasha just stood there for a minute, not sure of what to do. He quickly regained his senses though, and wasted no time in returning Inukigo's embrace.

"Don't worry about. You're not the first person to be tricked that way by him. He did the same thing to me 51 years ago when he disguised himself as Kikyou. I have no right to be angry with you for falling for it. And besides, you're not the only one who feels like they should be apologizing," Inuyasha said calmly as he looked down at her. "I'm sorry for not coming to look for you after I was freed from my seal. I thought that you had either died or gone off and forgotten about me, so I didn't come after you. Forgive me?"

Inukigo didn't say anything, she just nodded slightly with her face still pressed against his shoulder as she waited for her tears to stop. Inuyasha smiled, then flicked one of Inukigo's ears, causing the girl to pull back from him in surprise. His smile turned into a smirk as she gave him an annoyed glare. He was glad to get this reaction out of her. When they were younger he had thoroughly enjoyed annoying his sister, and her glare told him that nothing had changed. He then found himself in another familiar situation when Inukigo pounced on him, causing him to fall flat on his back, and then started to tickle him. '_Oh wonderful, now everyone's gonna know that I'm ticklish. I'm never gonna hear the end of this._' As if on cue, Miroku started to laugh at Inuyasha's present predicament.

"Well I never thought that I would witness the mighty Inuyasha being subdued by something other than Kagome-sama's rosary."

"Huh? What does he mean by a subduing rosary Inuyasha?" Inukigo asked while getting up off her brother.

"Never mind. You'll find out soon enough," he mumbled the last part to low for even Inukigo to hear. "Anyways, you better not speak of this ever you baka, lecherous bouzu, if you know what's good for you."

"Hai, hai, Inuyasha," Miroku replied with a grin on his face.

"That's something else I've been meaning to ask about. You're obviously a houshi, so why is it that you've been called lecherous and hentai numerous times since I've been here? It doesn't quite add up," Inukigo said to Miroku with a confused look on her face.

"You know, I've known them for about a year now and I still haven't figured that out," Miroku said innocently, as his not-so-innocent hand made contact with Inukigo's rear.

Inukigo stiffened at the sudden feeling on her backside. Inuyasha, Kagome, Sango, and Shippou all recognized the shocked look on Inukigo's face, and glared daggers at Miroku. They were about to explode at him for his actions, that is until Inuyasha saw the look that crossed his sister's face. He began to slowly back away, motioning for the others to do the same, indicating that he had seen this look before and it only meant one thing for the unfortunate Miroku - he was doomed.

CRACK

With one quick, fluid motion, Inukigo had turned and slapped Miroku across the face, sending him a good 10 feet before he skidded to a halt. Inukigo then stalked over to his fallen form, giving him a glare that out-did any look that Sango or Inuyasha had ever given him.

"Touch me like that again you hentai, and I'll make certain that you don't have a hand to touch with anymore," she said coldly. She didn't even wait for a response, and stomped off back to the fire. Miroku sat there for a moment, nursing his injured cheek, before Inuyasha walked up to him and offered to help him to his feet.

"I'd take her seriously if I were you Miroku. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if she tried to take off your hand if you did it again," Inuyasha said as he looked at Miroku with a very serious look on his face.

"She seemed really mad about Miroku touching her Inuyasha. Anyone would be, I know, demo, she had this look in her eye. What's that about Inuyasha?" Kagome asked quietly.

Inuyasha sighed and then gestured for everyone to huddle in closer, mainly because he was afraid that Inukigo would bite his head off if she heard him and didn't want this information told.

"When we were younger, maybe twelve or thirteen, a group of older boys ganged up on her with the intention of bullying her and, well, one or two of them tried to feel her up to get her mad. Let's just say that when she was through with them, every one of those boys was afraid to go near any woman other than their mothers for months," he whispered.

"Served them right too dammit!!" Inukigo yelled over her shoulder, having heard the entire conversation.

Kagome and Sango gave a nervous laugh and went over to sit beside Inukigo, explaining that she shouldn't be too mad at Miroku, since he sometimes couldn't help himself, even if he did deserve the treatment she gave him. Once things had calmed down a bit, and Miroku felt that he could speak without his life being put in danger, he decided to voice a question that had been bothering him for some time.

"There is something that has been concerning me," he said calmly, getting the group's attention. "Inukigo, you said that you asked the houshi who sealed you to bring a message to Kaede so Inuyasha would know your whereabouts when he awakened, am I right?" he asked. Inukigo nodded to show that he was correct, and Miroku continued. 

"And Inuyasha, if I'm not mistaken, not once in the last year has Kaede-sama even mentioned Inukigo to you?"

"Aa. Kaede-baba never once mentioned her. That's why I didn't know where you were Inukigo," Inuyasha explained after answering Miroku's question.

"What are you trying to get at Houshi-sama?" Sango asked.

"Yeah Miroku, what's this about?" Shippou piped up.

"Kaede-sama is not one to withhold information such as this, so she must have never gotten the message that was intended for her. And I very much doubt that the houshi who sealed you, Inukigo, would go back on his word to deliver your message after agreeing to seal you. Which means…" Miroku was cut off before he could finish his sentence

"Something must have happened to the monk before he could deliver the message to Kaede-bachan," Kagome said.

"Exactly," Miroku replied.

"But what could have possibly happened to that houshi to keep him from delivering the message to Kaede-baba?" Inuyasha asked to no one in particular. Everything was quiet until an eerily dark voice broke the silence.

"I believe that I can answer that question for you." 


	7. Chapter 6: Naraku's True Plan Revealed

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha. I'm so sick of saying this!!

Key:

= Scene change

= same scene, time passed

"Example" = spoken words

'_Example_' = thoughts

Chapter 6: Naraku's True Plan Revealed

"I believe I can answer that question for you."

Everyone froze as the cold voice resonated through the small clearing, seemingly coming from every direction. Inuyasha wasn't long coming over his shock however, and soon had Tetsusaiga drawn, ready for a fight.

"Naraku, you bastard! Show yourself now!" '_Why didn't I smell him, and why didn't Kagome sense his shards?_' Inuyasha then mentally kicked himself. '_As usual, a barrier._'

"Very well, Inuyasha. You are certainly in a hurry to die," Naraku said coldly as he appeared from the thick forest.

Inukigo just stared at him, Naraku, the demon in the white baboon pelt, who had tricked her into fighting her own brother. Naraku saw the glare that was aimed at him and smirked evilly.

"Hello again, Inkigo-san. It's nice to see you again."

If possible, Inukigo became even more enraged. She shifted her gaze slightly so that her bangs hid her eyes from view. Inuyasha turned to look at her, and heard her mumble something that sounded like 'Sick, twisted bastard' under her breath. He hated seeing her this way, so he was determined to put a stop to it. '_That bastard is going to pay for what he's done to her, but I want answers first._' As if reading his thoughts, Miroku was the first to speak up.

"I see that you're up to your old tricks again Naraku. Isn't this one rather overused? Tricking Inukigo into thinking that Inuyasha betrayed her. What were you really hoping to accomplish as a result of this?"

Naraku smirked coldly and laughed to himself at seeing the distraught looks that were on the faces of the group before him.

"I thought you were smarted than that houshi. I was hoping to accomplish what I always hope to accomplish - cause pain. And by the looks on all of your faces, I'd say I did a pretty good job, wouldn't you agree?"

Everyone was pretty much pissed now, all mumbling choice curses under their breath at the evil hanyou at the edge of the clearing. Inuyasha noticed however, that Inukigo was strangely quiet. She wasn't saying anything, and she hadn't moved an inch since Naraku showed up. '_That's it, I'm going to figure out what's going on, then I'm gonna kill the bastard!_'

"Naraku! Why the hell did you have to use her?! And before I forget to ask, what do you mean you can tell us what happened to that houshi that was supposed to deliver that message to Kaede?"

"The reason why I chose her for this Inuyasha, was her connection to you. I had so much fun making you suffer 51 years ago with Kikyou, that I wanted to have the opportunity to do it again if you were ever freed from your seal. As for that houshi, I'm what happened to him."

"Nani?!" Everyone exclaimed, now thoroughly confused.

"I killed him before he could deliver his message. It was the first stage of my plan, and I must say that it went well."

"How long have you been planning this exactly?" Miroku asked, his anger building along with the rest of his companions.

"Oh I've had this planned for quite some time. It actually began on the same day that Inuyasha was sealed and Kikyou died."

"Care to explain further, bastard?" said Inuyasha, slightly annoyed that it was taking so long to figure out what was going on.

"Gladly. You'll be dying soon anyway. I guess I could share my plan with you," Naraku replied as he smiled evilly. "It was all simple really. I was watching when Kikyou sealed you to that tree Inuyasha. I also saw Inukigo's reaction to finding you as you were, and determined that you were very close to each other. Then I heard her asked to be sealed so there was a chance that she could see you again and the plan began to formulate in my mind - if she was sealed, I could use her to cause you even more pain and suffering whenever you woke up from your eternal sleep. I followed her into this forest while she was searching for that houshi. After he had sealed her, I stopped him from delivering his message quite easily. Having Inukigo believe that you knew where she was all along but didn't come get her was the perfect way to get her to turn on you. All I had to do was disguise myself as you and everything else fell into place. Too bad you managed to ruin it though."

By this time everyone was raging. They had had enough of Naraku using other people to get what he wanted, and now they were determined to make him pay for it. Especially Inuyasha. '_Naraku has messed with someone close to me for the last time. This time, the bastard's dead._' he thought to himself while unsheathing the Tetsusaiga.

"That's right, your plan is ruined. And now I'm going to make you pay for what you've done. 

Prepare yourself, Naraku. 'Cause in a few short minutes you're gonna…" Inuyasha trailed off as he turned to look at Inukigo, who had remained silent through everything that had been going on. That is, until now. Inuyasha had been drawn to the sound of a faint growling. Now he was concerned, seeing his sister shaking.

"Inukigo? Daijoubou ka?" he asked quietly as he slowly walked towards her, not forgetting that Naraku was still right in front of them.

Inukigo didn't reply, she didn't even look up at him. Her hands were clenched so tightly that her claws were digging into her palms, causing blood to drip through her fingers and onto the forest floor. That's when he noticed it. Something was really wrong with her scent. He wasn't quite sure what it meant. It was almost as if she smelled like a…youkai? The it hit him. '_Oh shit._' No sooner had he thought this, when Inukigo's head snapped up, revealing a jagged purple line on each cheek and deep crimson eyes. Inuyasha was quick to move out of her line of sight, fearing that she would attack the first thing she saw. Luckily, all of their friends were behind her, and the only one who stood before Inukigo now was Naraku.

"Nobody move or make a sound." Inuyasha whispered as he crept back to the group.

"What's going on Inuyasha?" Kagome asked.

"Inuyasha, this youki that I'm feeling, is it Inukigo's? Am I right in assuming that her youkai blood has taken over her body?" Miroku asked.

"Aa. That's why I don't want to draw her attention before we can figure out a way to calm her blood. For now I don't think there's much we can do but hope that she doesn't come after us."

For the moment, Inuyasha didn't have to worry about his sister's attention being drawn to them. She was too busy eyeing Naraku, teeth bared and claws now extended to full length. Naraku just stared back at her quizzically. He had never seen such a transformation before, but to him it seemed flawed. He could tell by looking at her that she now had no idea who any of the people around her were, or who she was for that matter. He could also sense bloodlust coming off of her in waves. But despite her change, she didn't seem to be much stronger. He found it quite puzzling. His thoughts were then interrupted when Inukigo decided to charge at her target.

"Inuyasha this is bad. She could get seriously hurt if she goes up against Naraku all alone." Kagome said, still trying to be quiet so Inukigo wouldn't notice them.

"I agree with Kagome-chan Inuyasha. We should try to help her before Naraku hurts her." Sango said. Miroku nodded in agreement with the two women.

Inuyasha clenched his fists, still looking straight ahead watching as Inukigo reached Naraku and started to swipe at him with her claws.

"Believe me, I want to go over there and help her. But there's nothing we can do. If we catch her attention then she'll just come after us, and I have absolutely no clue how to stop her." he said as he bowed his head. Kagome looked at him sadly and then she also turned to watch the fight between Inukigo and Naraku.

Naraku, although quite occupied with dodging Inukigo's attacks, had heard every word that Inuyasha had just said. '_So, I was right in assuming she won't recognize them while she's like this. That gives me a perfect idea._' Naraku smirked and sent out a barrage of tentacles, straight at Inukigo. There were far too many for her to dodge them all, and two of them hit their mark, one going through her stomach, the other into her right shoulder. Inukigo acted as though nothing had happened, sliced of the tentacles, and pulled them out of her body. '_She doesn't even feel pain while she's like this. Impressive._'

At seeing the two tentacles tear through Inukigo's body, all thoughts of remaining quiet and unnoticed were quickly forgotten.

"INUKIGO!!" the entire group yelled out in a panic.

At hearing the loud noise, Inukigo turned around to look at the group behind her, although at the moment she had no idea they were calling out to her. Seeing her attention shift, Naraku took the opportunity to quickly and quietly slip away into the forest. '_Now Inukigo will take care of them for me. This will definitely make up for my previous plan's failure._' Naraku thought as he disappeared.

Inuyasha noticed Naraku running off and became enraged.

"That bastard is running away again! Naraku, you coward! Get back here right now!" he screamed.

"Um…Inuyasha?" Kagome said quietly

"Nanda?" he replied, a little gruffly.

"I think that we have something a little more pressing to worry about at the moment." Miroku said.

"Huh?" Inuyasha stated, somewhat confused. His question was answered by all of his companions pointing sheepishly behind him. He turned to see what they were pointing at, and then wanted to kick himself for forgetting that they were being quiet earlier for a reason. Standing at the other edge of the clearing was Inukigo and she was staring at them intensely with her crimson eyes. Inuyasha knew what the look meant - bloodlust.

'_Oh fuck._' he thought to himself. '_Now what are we gonna do_?'

Sorry I took so long to update this time, but I had to finish this chapter first.

It could be quiet awhile before I update again 'cause I don't have anything else written at the moment. (I'll try to do something this weekend)

And I want more reviews! C'mon people!

Ja ne!! 


	8. Chapter 7: Fight for Survival

Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha or any other characters associated with the show

Key:

"Example" = spoken words

'_Example_' = thoughts

Chapter 7: Fight for Survival

'_What's this feeling?_' Inukigo thought as she looked at the group standing on the opposite side of the clearing. '_I feel like I need to dig my claws into something. Make something bleed. Kill something._' She began to grin evilly. '_They'll do great. The hanyou looks like he'll be fun to kill._'

Everyone saw the grin that crossed Inukigo's face and it sent chills up their spines.

"This is bad Inuyasha. I can sense more youki coming from her than when your youkai blood takes over." Miroku said.

"She must have been really pissed at Naraku for it to take her over that much." Sango stated.

"Inuyasha, how are we going to stop her?" Kagome asked.

"I don't know. However we do it we have to be careful. She's already seriously hurt from her fight with Naraku and I don't want to injure her any more than she already is."

They didn't have time to come up with a plan to stop Inukigo, because at that moment she decided that it was time to charge head on into the group. Inuyasha heard her coming and turned to see her closing the distance between them at a speed that would challenge Koga's. He barely had enough time to grab Kagome and jump out of the way along with the others. Inukigo skidded when her targets scattered, but didn't stop. She looked around her and singled out the small neko youkai as her first target since it was closest.

Kirara saw that Inukigo was coming at her and transformed into her larger form. She remembered what Inuyasha had said about not wanting to hurt Inukigo so she didn't attack.

Inukigo grinned again when Kirara transformed. '_This will be even more fun then I thought._' She started swiping her claws at Kirara with tremendous force, slightly splitting the ground whenever she came into contact with it instead of Kirara. Kirara was doing her best to dodge Inukigo's strikes, but they started coming to fast for her and Inukigo made contact with Kirara's right shoulder, creating four long, deep gashes. Inukigo slowly stood up from her crouched position, studied her claws, then started to lick the blood off of them.

'_Great,_' Inuyasha thought. '_She's already in a state of bloodlust, and now she's got a taste for it too._'

"Kirara!!" Sango screamed. She instantly forgot everything about not hurting Inukigo when Kirara collapsed and changed back to her smaller form. "Hiraikotsu!"

"Sango-chan stop!" Kagome yelled. But it was too late. Sango's giant boomerang was on a direct course for Inukigo, who currently seemed to be unaware of it. However, just before the boomerang hit her, Inukigo jumped into the air and out of harm's way. She watched it as it returned to Sango and decided that this woman who had attacked her would be her next target. She charged towards Sango at top speed, reaching her in seconds. Sango had just enough time to hold up Hiraikutsu as a shield.

"You know, it wasn't such a good idea to do that." Inukigo said as she grinned sadistically at Sango. That look gave Sango the chills. She froze for a split second, giving Inukigo just enough time to get past the oversized boomerang. Inukigo would have made contact, but Inuyasha got behind her just in time, wrapping his arms fully around her, pinning her arms at her sides.

"Miroku!! Get over here now and put some ofudas on her so we can calm her down!"

Miroku rushed over, ofudas in hand, but in no way could he place any of them on Inukigo. Inuyasha may have had her arms pinned, but the hold he had on her lifted her up off of the ground, and she was kicking madly at the air in her struggles to get free. Miroku couldn't get anywhere near her.

"Inuyasha, I can't do anything with her kicking like that!"

"Kuso." Inuyasha swore. There was no way of restraining her if she didn't calm down a little.

"Inukigo, it's me, Inuyasha!" he yelled, but not harshly. "C'mon, calm down!! You gotta' calm down!!"

Inukigo relaxed in Inuyasha's arms, and he saw her eyes flash amber for a split second, but it wasn't enough time to get the ofudas on her. She threw her head back, smashing it into Inuyasha's face. Inuyasha was shocked at the impact, and loosened his grip just enough for Inukigo to free her arms. She reached back with both hands and grabbed Inuyasha's shoulders. He yelped in pain as she dug her claws in deep, then she threw him over her head and straight into Miroku.

"Inuyasha! Miroku-sama!" Kagome screamed.

Unfortunately, her scream caught Inukigo's attention, and she was right next to Kagome in seconds. Kagome knew that she couldn't get away and threw Shippou from her arms just as Inukigo pounced on her. Kagome was pinned to the ground and winced as Inukigo's claws dug into her right shoulder. Inukigo raised her right hand and prepared to ram it into Kagome's chest. Luckily Sango made it just in time, swinging her Hiraikutsu at Inukigo. Inukigo heard it coming, and jumped off of Kagome in time to avoid it, and landed right behind Sango.

"Guess you haven't learned about not interfering."

Sango turned her head to look at Inukigo, but she didn't have enough time to defend herself and ended up with four long gashes up her back. She fell to the ground right next to Kagome. She wasn't unconscious, but she decided not to move, hoping that Inukigo would lose interest in her for the moment.

"Sango!!" Miroku yelled. He and Inuyasha had managed to untangle themselves and were now both standing and had seen what happened. Miroku's cry caught Inukigo's attention and she forgot about the two girls on the ground. She began to slowly walk towards Miroku and Inuyasha, flexing her blood covered claws and cracking her knuckles.

"Sango-chan, daijoubou ka?" Kagome whispered as she sat up.

"Hai, Kagome-chan. The gashes aren't too deep, it does hurt to move around though."

"What are we going to do? Not only are we getting hurt, but Inukigo is seriously injured too," Kagome said as she glanced at her blood covered shirt. The blood wasn't hers, it was Inukigo's. She was bleeding heavily from the large hole in her stomach. "If we don't find a way to stop her soon she'll die from blood loss."

"I don't know. I can't think of a way to do it without hurting her more," Sango replied.

"I hope Inuyasha can think of something soon. I don't want anything to happen to her."

At that moment, Inuyasha was desperately trying to think of something before Inukigo reached him and Miroku. He was trying to think of the ways that they stopped his demon blood. '_The rosary works on me, too bad she doesn't have one._' he thought to himself, being grateful for the thing for once. '_There's physical contact. Kagome changed me back once by kissing me,_' he would have blushed at the memory if it had not been for the current situation. '_But I don't think that will work either. I've already been close to her and it only had worked for a second._' Inukigo was getting closer and he was running out of time. '_Then there's Tetsusaiga. It acts as a guardian sword and binds my demon blood,_' that's when he got an idea. '_Wait, Inukigo and I are twins. We have the same blood. If Tetsusaiga works on my blood, it should work on hers too._'

"Miroku, I've got an idea. Think you can keep her busy long enough for me to get close to her?"

"I think so, what do you have in mind Inuyasha?"

"I'm gonna try to get her to hold Tetsusaiga. It works for my blood so I'm hoping that it'll work for hers too."

"Good idea, I'll see what I can do."

Their conversation was cut short when Inukigo decided that she had had enough of walking and ran the remaining distance to Miroku and Inuyasha. Miroku jumped into her path to divert her attention towards him and away from Inuyasha, and it worked. Miroku could barely hold off her strikes with his staff. Inuyasha waited until he was sure that Miroku had her full attention. He wasn't sure if he would get a second chance to do this so he was going to have to be careful. He saw an opportunity when Inukigo stumbled a bit as Miroku dodged her claws. He unsheathed Tetsusaiga and rushed forward as fast as he could with the intention to grab her hand and place Tetsusaiga in it. Unfortunately, Inukigo heard him move and was ready long before he got there, remembering that she had a wound in her stomach.

"Hijin Kessou!"

Inuyasha was shocked when he saw one of his own attacks coming at him. '_Chikushou, I forgot that we have the same attacks._' He held up Tetsusaiga as a shield, and managed to block most of the blades, but a few of them got by, creating cuts on his arms and legs.

"Inuyasha!"

It was a mistake for Miroku to draw attention to himself because Inukigo turned quickly, with her claws aiming to stab Miroku in the chest. He saw her coming just in time and managed to move partially out of the way, but ended up with a gash along his arm. Inukigo looked around the clearing. No one was left standing. She grinned widely as she looked down at her claws. '_This has been more fun then I thought it would be. Their blood tastes good too._'

Inuyasha saw how preoccupied she was with her claws and took the chance to run at her. This time, she didn't notice him coming because she was too fascinated with the blood on her claws. She didn't even know he was there until he had grabbed her wrist. Before she could make a struggle to break free, Inuyasha had Tetsusaiga firmly planted in her hand and quickly wrapped her fingers around the hilt.

Then something happened that completely caught Inuyasha by surprise. Tetsusaiga started to pulse madly, then started to glow with a blinding white light. Inuyasha squinted his eyes shut to block out the light, then tried to pull the hand that was still holding onto Tetsusaiga away when it felt like something was burning him. There was some resistance, but he finally got his hand away. Then he realized that he had also pulled the Tetsusaiga away from Inukigo's grasp. When the light faded he prepared to put the sword back in her hand, only to find that it was already occupied, by another sword, that looked identical to the Tetsusaiga that he was still holding.

'_Nani? Another sword? Where did that come from?_' he thought to himself, then he saw the sword Inukigo was holding start to pulse in much the same manner as Tetsusaiga. '_The hell with how it got there! It's starting to contain her youkai blood!_'

"Inukigo, wake up!!" he screamed at her.

She struggled against the grip on her wrist for a second before he yelled at her, then froze. '_Where am I? What am I doing? Why do I smell so much blood?_' Inuyasha was relieved when he saw her crimson red eyes turn back to their normal amber colour and the stripes on her cheeks fade away. He was worried when he saw the panicked look on her face.

"Inukigo?" he said quietly.

"Inuyasha? What's going on, why do I smell everyone's blood?," she asked, then looked at her claws, "And why is it all over me?"

'_She doesn't remember anything that happened._' "What do you remember?" Inuyasha asked calmly as he sheathed Tetsusaiga.

"I remember Naraku showing up and talking about his plan, then nothing up to right now. Inuyasha what did I do? Did I…hurt everyone?"

By this time everyone had managed to get to their feet and were making their way over to the twin inu-hanyous. Inuyasha looked at Inukigo and saw how scared she looked as their friends approached. He knew exactly what she was feeling - overwhelming guilt. He quickly let go of her wrist and grabbed her shoulders wanting to reassure her.

"Inukigo, listen to me. What you did wasn't you fault. You got really angry at Naraku and your youkai blood took over. You attacked us because you didn't know who we were or what you were doing, so don't blame yourself for it."

Inukigo looked at the people around her. '_Kagome-chan, Sango-chan, Miroku, Kirara, Inuyasha. I hurt all of them. What if I do it again? They might not be able to stop me next time. I have to get away from them._'

She pulled herself out of Inuyasha's grasp, dropped the sword that she was holding, and made one leap away from the group. She wanted to go further but that's all the far she got as fell to her knees clutching her stomach as searing pain spread throughout her entire body. She felt something warm and wet against her hand, and held it up to look at it, and was shocked by the amount of her own fresh blood that was on it. She then realized that she had two rather large, gaping wounds, the one in her stomach bleeding heavily. '_When did I get these?_' she asked herself. Her vision started to blur as the pain from the injuries and the blood loss kicked in and she lost consciousness, falling the remaining distance to the ground.


	9. Chapter 8: Guilty Conscience

Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha, God I'm sick of saying it.

Key:

= Scene change

"Example" = spoken words

'_Example_' = thoughts

Chapter 8: Guilty Conscience

"Inukigo!!" everyone screamed as they ran to her. They were shocked to see the amount of blood that had already collected around her on the ground.

"Inuyasha, we have to get her treatment now. We're too far from Kaede's to just run there with her like this. We have to clean and bandage her wounds first. Can you find a big river nearby?" Kagome said.

"Aa, give me a second." Inuyasha said as he sniffed the air. "There's a pretty big river that's only a few minutes away if I run to it."

"Good, you and I will go on ahead and get Inukigo taken care of." she then turned to Sango and Miroku. "Does that sound ok?" They both nodded. "Alright, Shippou-chan, you go with Sango-chan and Miroku-sama and make sure they find the river."

"Ok Kagome." Shippou said.

With that all taken care of, Inuyasha picked up the new sword and placed it at his hip with Tetsusaiga, then carefully rolled Inukigo over onto her back and gently lifted her into his arms. He grimaced at the amount of blood that she was losing. Kagome then carefully climbed onto his back with her backpack in tow.

"You're gonna have to hang on tighter than usual Kagome since I can't hold onto your legs."

"Ok." she replied as she wrapped her arms around his neck and locked her knees to his sides. When he felt that she was hanging on tightly enough Inuyasha took off through the trees towards the river.

"Do you think that Inukigo will be ok?" Shippou asked quietly as he watched Inuyasha run away.

"I'm sure that she will Shippou." Miroku replied.

"Yeah, she's Inuyasha's sister after all. If she's anything like him she'll up and moving around in no time, despite the injuries." Sango said. "And besides, she's got Inuyasha and Kagome to take care of her."

"Yeah, you're right." Shippou said.

"Well should we be heading off then?" Miroku asked.

"Yeah, since we'll have to walk. Kirara's too hurt to fly, and I don't think that either of us will be doing any running at the moment." Sango replied.

"Is your back alright Sango?" Miroku asked worriedly.

"Hai. The cuts aren't that deep. I'll be fine in a little while." Sango replied. "Well lets get going Houshi-sama."

"Alright, lead the way Shippou."

"Hai!"

And with that, all four travellers proceeded into the forest in the same direction that Inuyasha had ran off in a few moments before.

Inuyasha was right, the river was only a few minutes away. However, in that short amount of time his clothes were drenched with Inukigo's blood.

"Kagome, it seems like she's bleeding way too much. It should have stopped by now."

"I guess it's because of all the moving she was doing when she was attacking us. It probably widened the wounds and kept them from beginning to heal."

"Ok, well what do we have to do first?"

"First, I have to get into my bathing suit. While I'm getting ready you go and sit her up in the river."

"Ok."

Inuyasha did as he was told, and found a large flat rock that was completely submerged in the water and sat Inukigo down on it. He then took off his haori and under kimono and sat on the rock behind her to keep her upright. He grimaced as the water slowly started to turn crimson with Inukigo's blood. He heard Kagome come out of the trees and turned his head to watch her take her first aid kit and some cloths out of her bag. She walked over and laid the things on the shore, then stepped into the water and walked out in front of Inukigo. It was then that Inuyasha noticed the five deep puncture wounds on Kagome's right shoulder.

"Do those hurt?" he asked her as he reached out to touch her shoulder. Kagome winced at his touch, confirming that they did indeed hurt.

"A little. Don't worry, I'll take care of them once we finish with Inukigo. I'll take care of the cuts on your arms and legs too."

"These aren't serious. They'll be fine when I wash them."

"Alright." Kagome said as she moved to take off Inukigo's shirt. She stopped when she got the second clasp undone. "Ano, Inuyasha, will Inukigo mind if you see her like this?"

"See her like what?"

"Without her shirt on?"

"There isn't really much of a choice is there. You need me to hold her up while you clean and bandage her. Besides, I ain't no pervert like Miroku, and she's my sister. I'm not gonna look at her like that. I don't think she'd mind anyways."

"Well, if she does than I guess you'll be the one in trouble." Kagome said as she began to pull the shirt up, being careful of the wound in Inukigo's stomach. "Can you raise her arms up please?" Inuyasha complied and then took the shirt and laid it on the shore when Kagome got it off. He then grabbed for the two cloths that lay next to the first aid kit and handed them to Kagome. She took one and left the other to him.

"You clean her back, I'll clean the front. We'll get it done faster that way. Just don't scrub too hard or you'll hurt her more."

Inuyasha didn't reply, just nodded his head, and proceeded to dip the cloth into the cool water and carefully wash the blood off of Inukigo's back. He was relieved to see that the bleeding was beginning to stop. It didn't take long to clean Inukigo off with both Inuyasha and Kagome working on her, and the river cleaned the blood out of her pants. Kagome had Inuyasha lift Inukigo out of the river and sit her up on the grass while she went about applying medicine to her wounds. She then bandaged Inukigo's wounds while Inuyasha rolled out her sleeping bag. When Kagome was finished Inuyasha carefully picked Inukigo up and carried her to the sleeping bag,

laying her inside of it and wrapping it around her. When he turned around, Kagome was back at the river with a clean cloth tending to her own injuries. He saw that she was having a hard time with them because she would wince every time she tried to touch her shoulder.

"Let me help you with that." he said as he came to crouch beside her.

"No, it's ok. I can do it myself. You don't have to help me."

"Baka, I want to help. It'll be done faster if you let me do it."

"Alright then," she said handing him the cloth, "You didn't have to call me baka."

"Keh."

Inuyasha then proceeded to wipe over Kagome's shoulder with the cloth. She whimpered whenever he pressed the cloth against her skin.

"Ooi, these hurt a lot more than you were lettin' on, don't they?"

She gave a small smile, letting him know that he was right.

"Hai, they do. Each of them are about an inch deep, judging from the length of Inukigo's claws when she grabbed me. I just didn't want you to worry about it while we had something more important to take care of."

Inuyasha nodded as he finished cleaning of her wounds. He then went about applying medicine to them and bandaging them in the same way she had treated Inukigo's wounds. As soon as he was done, Kagome grabbed the bottle of ointment from the ground and started to apply it to the cuts on his arms.

"Ooi! I told you these are fine!"

"And I'm telling you that they hurt more then you're letting on." Her point was proven when he

winced at her touch. "See?" All Inuyasha did was glare at her. "Don't worry, I'm not going to bandage them. I'll just put some of this on them so they don't bother you so much while you wait for them to heal." Inuyasha huffed and turned his head, allowing Kagome to finish what she was doing, not wanting to admit that the ointment did make his cuts feel better. When she was finished she took his clothes, Inukigo's, and her own, put them into the river and began to wash the blood out of them. She then laid them out on a rock to dry.

"Hey, Inuyasha, what are we gonna do about Inukigo's clothes? Her shirt has two big holes in it."

"Don't worry, it's made from fire rat fur just like my kimono. It'll repair itself in a little while."

"Oh, ok." she replied. She walked over to her bag, pulling out a clean change of clothes, and went into the bushes to put them on. She stepped out wearing a pair of comfy jeans and a loose blue sweater. She then joined Inuyasha where he sat not far from Inukigo.

"Inuyasha, how long do you think it will take for Miroku-sama, Sango-chan, and Shippou-chan to get here?"

"Not sure. It only took a few minutes for us to get here, but I was running at top speed. Since Kirara was hurt they'll have to walk, so I'd say it'll probably take them a few hours."

Kagome nodded, then looked at Inuyasha to see that he was fingering the hilt of the new sword that hung from his waist.

"Hey, where did that come from?" Kagome asked as she pointed at the sword.

"This? I don't really know. When that bright light came from Tetsusaiga, I ended up pulling it away and Inukigo was holding this sword. It looked just like Tetsusaiga when Inukigo was holding it."

"Hmm…maybe this sword was hidden inside the Tetsusaiga, and the bright light was it trying to get out." Kagome suggested.

"I guess. There's really no other way to explain a sword magically appearing out of nowhere. Oh well, it's Inukigo's sword regardless."

"How do you figure that."

"Well, Tetsusaiga didn't start to give off that light until it was in Inukigo's hand, so her touching it somehow made this sword come out. And this sword started to contain her youkai blood the second that it was in hand. Tetsusaiga wasn't doin' a very good job of that when I gave it to her."

"Oh, so I guess that means that this is her guardian sword. At least we don't have to worry about her turning youkai again, so long as she holds on to it."

"Yeah, but…" Inuyasha turned slightly to regard his sister, who had not moved since they had placed her in Kagome's sleeping bag. She was so pale from the loss of blood and so still, that if Inuyasha hadn't been able to hear her light breathing, he would have thought she was dead.

"But what?" Kagome asked, wondering why he cut himself off, and why he all of a sudden looked so sullen.

"Remember the second time that I turned youkai? When I…well you know."

"Hai."

"Well, do you remember how I felt about it afterwards?"

"Yeah I remember." Kagome replied, not wanting to go into detail, since he himself had never openly admitted how he felt when he had killed those humans, but she knew.

"Well, imagine how Inukigo felt when she got her senses back. Sure, she didn't kill anyone, but look who she attacked - the only people in the entire world that she has come to care for. I don't know if I could live with myself if I had attacked you or the others when I changed instead of those bandits."

Kagome let it sink in and put herself in Inukigo's place. Inuyasha was right. She didn't think that she would have been able to live with herself either if she had attacked the only friends that she had in the entire world.

"She's gonna be really upset when she wakes up, isn't she Inuyasha."

"Yeah, you saw how she reacted right after she woke up. The look she had on her face…she was absolutely horrified by what she had done. And then she tried to run away. My best guess about that is that she was afraid she would start attacking us again. I don't even know how I would handle guilt like that."

"I guess the only thing we can do is try to reassure her that it wasn't her fault, that she had no control over what she was doing. Hopefully, we'll be able to get her to forgive herself."

"It's definitely not going to be easy. I tried telling her that when we were back at the clearing, but she didn't even seem to hear me once she realized what she did."

"Maybe when she wakes up she'll have a clearer mind and we'll be able to get through to her."

"Hopefully."

As if she knew that she was being talked about, Inukigo started to stir. Inuyasha and Kagome heard her groan as she started to wake up, and both were at her side in an instant.

Inukigo's eyelids fluttered open slowly, and she was greeted by the worried faces of her brother and Kagome. It took her a minute for her brain to start working again, then she quickly recalled what had happened in the clearing with Naraku, and what she had done to her friends. Inuyasha and Kagome both saw the same horrified look come across Inukigo's face as before. In a matter of seconds Inukigo was attempting to get up and make her escape, but she was failing. Not only was it next to impossible to move because of the wound in her stomach, but she also quickly found Inuyasha's hand on her chest, pushing her back down to the ground.

"Ooi, I know what you're trying to do, and don't even think about it. You're also hurt really badly, and you're not getting up until those wounds heal."

Inukigo looked up at her brother, slightly perturbed that he was bossing her around like he was.

"Leave me alone Inuyasha. These are nothing. Now let me up."

"No way! You're not moving from that spot until you're healed and I say so."

Kagome would have starting laughing at the sight before her if the situation hadn't been so serious. '_Inuyasha is acting just like I do when he gets hurt like this, and Inukigo's acting just like him. This is certainly ironic._'

"Inuyasha, I said let me up!"

"And I said no. You should learn to listen to your older brother." Inuyasha said with a smug look on his face, which made Inukigo look even more annoyed.

"I would hardly think that two and a half minutes makes much difference."

"Well, it's enough for me. Besides, I'm not letting you up just so you can try to run off and end up hurting yourself more. I wouldn't be a very good big brother if I let that happen, ne?"

Inukigo huffed at the 'big brother' comment, she still didn't think that being born only two and a half minutes before her qualified him to be a big brother. She was also peeved that he wanted to stop her from running from them. She only felt that it was something that she should do, out of fear that she would hurt everyone again.

"Inukigo-chan, why do you want to run away from us?" Kagome asked softly, hoping to get the female hanyou to make her feelings known, rather than bottle them up, as Inuyasha often did.

"Why shouldn't I want to run away?" Inukigo retorted, sounding as if Kagome had asked her a stupid question. "After what I did to all of you, I don't deserve to be around you. And, if you don't mind, could you stop referring to me that way?"

"Why?"

"Because I also don't deserve to be spoken to familiarly."

"Inukigo, stop beating yourself up about it," Inuyasha said, removing his hand and getting as close to Inukigo's face as he could, "What's done is done, and there's nothing that can be done to change it. Besides, you didn't know what you were doing, and you couldn't control yourself."

"That doesn't matter!" Inukigo yelled at him, as she forced herself to sit up, despite the protests of pain that flared though her stomach. She glared at him for a moment then let her head drop forward, her bangs covering her eyes. She then continued in a more silent, solemn tone. "Saying that is no excuse for what I did. It was still my body, still ME, that did it. I have every right to beat myself up about it, you do to for that matter."

Inuyasha was shocked. He could plainly see that she was quickly becoming depressed. Not only that, but she also felt that she deserved a beating for what she had done. And to top it all off, she looked like she was getting ready to cry. Needless to say, he was getting rather pissed at how fast she was going downhill.

"Now listen here," he said sternly as he forcefully grabbed her arms in order to make her face him. "You're stronger than this, so stop talking that way. I am not going to let you beat yourself into the dirt, understand? I know that you're upset because of what you did, and I can relate because I did almost the same thing once, but you have to realize, it wasn't your fault. You didn't know what you were doing, you didn't know who we were. Hell, you didn't even know who you were. So you can't go blaming yourself for something that was out of your control. We don't, so you shouldn't either."

Inukigo didn't move. She just stared Inuyasha straight in the eye, trying to find some reason as to why she should be forgiven. She tried to hold back the tears that threatened to fall from her eyes, but to no avail.

"Ooi, don't go crying over this!"

"Inuyasha!" Kagome said sternly.

"What am I supposed to do Inuyasha? Laugh? Sure, I'll just laugh it all off. It's no big deal, I only attacked and hurt the only people who were ever kind to me and I cared about since our mother died."

Inuyasha froze. She had a point. When she put it that way, it almost made him want to cry, not that he ever would. The hard stare that he was receiving from Kagome about telling his sister not to cry over what she had done almost made him want to crawl under a rock somewhere. He sighed and gave in to both women, favouring wrapping his arms around his sister rather than hold her shoulders.

"Alright, I'll let you cry as much as you want, but only on two conditions." Inukigo nodded in agreement against his chest. "Ok, first you have to forgive yourself for what you did while you were youkai. I know that it might take awhile for you to do that, but I don't want you beating yourself up or getting yourself depressed over it. Got it?" she nodded again to tell him that she agreed. "Good, now, second you have to promise me that you won't try to run off on me and the others, especially right now because you could hurt yourself."

Inukigo pulled back from him so she could look him in the eyes.

"I don't think that I can promise the second one Inuyasha."

"Why not?"

"I-I'm afraid that I might change again and you won't be able to stop me. I should leave so I'm not a danger to everyone."

Inuyasha gave her a cocky smile that had her somewhat confused.

"Is that all you were worried about?"

"Well, yeah. Why shouldn't I be worried about something like that happening again?"

"Because it won't happen again."

"What do you mean? How do you know that…" Inukigo was cut off by Inuyasha as he pulled the

new sword from it's place at his hip and slipped it through her obi.

"What's this?"

"That is your guardian sword."

"My what?"

Inuyasha looked slightly frustrated. "Your guardian sword. It seals your youkai blood so you won't lose control anymore."

"Well that's certainly a relief." Inukigo said as she looked curiously at the sword on her hip.

"So does this mean that you'll be staying Inukigo-chan?" Kagome asked with a huge smile on her face.

"Yeah, it does, Kagome-chan. I guess I can promise you both things Inuyasha, but I don't even feel like crying anymore."

"Thank God, I don't know how much more crying I could take before I started getting a headache."

Inukigo was slightly annoyed by her brother's quick character change. '_Well, he'll pay for that._' she thought to herself. She then lunged at him, preparing to launch another tickle assault on him like she had done that morning. Problem was, she forgot that she now had a large wound in her stomach.

"Shimatta!"

"What? What is it?" Inuyasha asked with a concerned tone in his voice from his position on the ground with his sister crouching over him.

"I really shouldn't have done that." Inukigo replied as she struggled to lift herself away from Inuyasha.

"Huh? Why…"

"I felt something tear." she said as she winced in pain and began to clutch at her stomach.

Kagome caught on a lot faster than Inuyasha did when she noticed a faint hint of red beginning to show on Inukigo's white bandages.

"Inukigo, your bandages. You're bleeding again."

Inuyasha saw now too, as Inukigo moved her now blood covered hand away from her stomach.

"Kuso, you reopened your wounds. As if you didn't lose enough blood already." Inuyasha cursed as he carefully slid his way out from underneath his sister and then gently sat her upright. "I told you that you shouldn't have gotten up."

"Well I didn't see you try to push me back down a second time. Man, this hurts."

Inuyasha looked at her sympathetically. He knew how much those kind of wounds hurt, he'd certainly had enough of them to know. He was just never one to say how much it hurt. While he was feeling sorry for his sister, Kagome had gone over to her bag and retrieved her medical supplies again.

"I'll have to change your bandages Inukigo-chan, now that they're all covered in blood."

"Go ahead." Inukigo replied as she carefully raised her arms to allow Kagome full access to her midsection.

Kagome started to unwrap the bandages from Inukigo's stomach and lower back, but stopped just before she reached her chest.

"Do you care that Inuyasha is watching? I can tell him to turn around if you want."

"I don't care." Inukigo replied.

"There, see, I told you before that she wouldn't mind." Inuyasha said to Kagome.

"I don't have a reason to mind. I figured that you would be a mature brother and not think about me that way. It's not like you're some sick pervert that would get thrills from seeing his sister naked from the waist up. You're not, right?"

"NO! The monk is the pervert, NOT me!" he yelled at her.

"Calm down baka, I'm just messing with ya."

"Ok, you two, that's enough." Kagome said in a motherly tone. "I have to finish changing these bandages so stop bickering for a few minutes."

"Keh!" was the reply she got from both hanyous and she start to giggle. When she was done re-wrapping Inukigo's wounds, Inuyasha picked her up so she wouldn't risk opening them again, and laid her down gently on Kagome's sleeping bag.

"Now, just lie still and get some sleep, and give those wounds enough time to heal properly before you decide to move again."

"Yes, big brother." Inukigo replied tiredly as she yawned and drifted off to sleep.

Inuyasha smirked and Kagome giggled at Inukigo's sleepy comment. When they were certain that Inukigo was asleep, Inuyasha and Kagome got up and moved to sit together next to a nearby tree for a greatly needed rest. Both had the same thought on their minds, that hopefully now things would settle down for awhile.

There we go, two more chapters. Sorry that it took so long, I forgot all about uploading them.

I might go faster if I got some reviews hint, hint

Oh well, if there are any questions feel free to ask!


	10. Chapter 9: Apologies are not Required

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha sad sigh

"Example" = Spoken words

'Example' = Thoughts

Chapter 9: Apologies are not Required

Not long after going to sit by the tree, Inuyasha and Kagome had fallen into a light sleep, both being rather tired from the day's events. They had been sleeping for a few hours, and it was late afternoon when Inuyasha's ears twitched and he woke from his nap. He could hear footsteps coming in their direction from the woods, but knew who it was so he wasn't worried. He yawned widely and was about to stretch until he noticed Kagome still sleeping on his shoulder. He blushed slightly, thankful that no one was around to see it, but then remembered that someone was coming, and he really didn't want them to see. '_Kuso, if that subeke bouzu sees us like this I'll never hear the end of it._' He really didn't want to wake Kagome '_Gods, she's pretty when she sleeps. Woah, where the hell did that come from?_' He reluctantly started to gently shake Kagome's shoulder and call her name.

"Kagome. Ooi, Kagome. Wake up."

"Hmm…Inuyasha? What's going on?" she replied sleepily as she yawned.

"We feel asleep. Miroku, Sango, and Shippou are coming. They should be here in a few minutes."

"Oh, ok. How's Inukigo doing?" she asked, rubbing her eyes.

"She's still sleeping. I can't smell her blood anymore, so her wounds are closed and healing, but it'll be a few days before her wounds are healed completely."

"Should we wake her up before the others get here?"

Inuyasha thought for a moment then turned to look at his sister lying in Kagome's sleeping bag. He noticed her ears twitching and smirked.

"Nah, we don't have to. She's already waking up. I think that she heard them coming same as I did."

As if on cue, Inukigo's eyes fluttered open, and she yawned widely. She started to stretch, but was reminded of the wound in her stomach when the sudden movement caused her pain and she stopped herself. She glanced over and say Inuyasha and Kagome looking at her, they had noticed her slight wince when she moved, and she gave them a faint smile to say she was ok. Both breathed a sigh of relief and got up to go over and sit next to her.

"Hey, Inukigo-chan. How are you feeling?" Kagome asked with a smile on her face.

"Still sore, but much better, thanks Kagome-chan." she replied as she tried to sit up. She was gently stopped by a hand on her shoulder.

"I thought that I told you that you weren't getting up until your wounds healed?" Inuyasha said as he looked her in the eye.

"C'mon, Inuyasha. Let me sit up. I'm feeling better now, not to mention that I'm stiff from lying in one place for so long."

Inuyasha contemplated her request. He didn't want her moving around fearing that she would hurt herself, but lying still for too long wasn't all that good for her either, so he reluctantly removed his hand from her shoulder.

"Alright, but you're only sitting up. You're not standing until I think that you can without hurting yourself."

"Fine." she replied as she glared at him. She hated it when he ordered her around and treated her like a little child, since they were after all the same age. But she knew that he was just being protective of her and trying to keep her from getting hurt and she loved him for it. She slowly tried to sit up, but seemed to have trouble doing so, so Inuyasha helped her sit herself up. He was worried when she seemed to be exhausted from the slight movement.

"Ooi, you ok?" he asked her, not attempting to hide the concern in his voice.

"Aa, just sore and stiff, don't worry about it." she said as she smiled at him. She then twitched her ears as she heard voices and footsteps come close to camp. "Miroku, Sango-chan and Shippou are coming." she said as she turned in the direction that she heard them coming from. Inuyasha noticed a sad look coming across her face and knew exactly what she was thinking.

"They aren't mad at you." he said bluntly.

"Huh?" she replied, surprised that he had known what she was thinking.

"I said they aren't mad at you." he repeated.

"You sure?" she asked as she turned her head to look at the ground. '_She sounds like she is really scared about them rejecting her because of what happened._' Inuyasha thought to himself.

"Of course Inukigo-chan." Kagome said with a smile. "They're not angry with you. They were really worried about you when we left."

Inukigo was a little stunned to hear that they had been worried for her when she had hurt them, but continued to look at the ground.

"Kagome-chan, how badly did I hurt them?" she asked, the sadness very apparent in her voice.

"Not to badly. Miroku has a cut on his arm, Kirara has a few on her shoulder, and Sango-chan's back was scratched up a bit. They weren't too serious, that's why we came on ahead with you."

"What about you?"

"Huh? Oh, I've got a few puncture wounds on my shoulder, but they aren't too bad."

Inukigo nodded, she was happy that she hadn't hurt anyone too badly. Just then, the rest of the small group emerged from the forest. Sango, who had Kirara in her arms, had a very pissed off look on her face, while Miroku had a bright red hand print on his face. Shippou, who was walking ahead of them, just sighed and shook his head.

"But Sango, I swear, my hand has a mind of its own!"

"Well then explain to it that if it keeps touched me it will be detached from your arm!"

Inuyasha and Kagome just looked at the pair, then sighed and shook their heads in the same way Shippou had. They knew exactly what had happened.

"Ooi, bouzu, why do you keep it up even though you know that you're gonna get the shit beat out of you?!" Inuyasha yelled.

"It's worth it every time Inuyasha!" Miroku yelled back, earning him a smack on the head from Sango.

"Subeke." she mumbled.

Inukigo just looked on, shocked. Sango and Kagome had told her that the monk was like this with every woman he saw. She then noticed that he was looking at her with a rather strange look on his face.

"What the hell are you staring at?!" she yelled at him, causing everyone to turn their attention to Miroku. Inuyasha, Kagome, and Sango looked at Miroku, then at Inukigo, then back to Miroku. Then the recognized the perverted smile on his face. He was looking at Inukigo because, at the moment, the only thing she was wearing from the waist up was a layer of bandages. They weren't leaving much to Miroku's perverted imagination. Sango, who was standing closest to him took the liberty of bringing Hiraikotsu down on the lecher's head.

"Stop looking at her that way subeke!!" she yelled at him.

Inukigo was a little confused. In what way had he been looking at her? She saw that Kagome had an annoyed look on her face, while Inuyasha and Sango looked as if they were going to kill the houshi.

"Um…Kagome-chan?" she whispered, getting Kagome's attention. "Just how was he looking at me that got those two so pissed?" she asked, pointing to Sango and Inuyasha.

"Oh, he was staring at your, um, chest because all you have on are those bandages." Kagome explained.

"Oh." was her calm reply. Everyone then turned to look at her.

"What do you mean 'oh'? The lecher was staring at you! You sound like you don't care." Inuyasha yelled at her.

"I don't." she replied calmly.

"HUH?!" everyone was shocked.

"Naze?!" Inuyasha screamed, his voice gradually climbing higher. '_Does she actually like the subeke?_'

"Why should I? I'm not naked, so he can't see anything. He's just picturing it. As long as he stays far, FAR away from me, I don't really care what goes on in his hentai mind." '_That's a relief._' Inuyasha thought to himself.

Everyone just stared at her for a few minutes, then sighed and decided to forget about it. When Sango and Miroku finally came over, Miroku of course keeping his distance because of the glares he was receiving from Sango and Inuyasha, Inukigo's guilt returned when she saw the blood stained cloths that covered Miroku and Sango's wounds. At some point Miroku had removed a part of his robes and had given a large piece of it to Sango so that she could wrap it around her torso as a temporary bandage. He had used the rest of it to wrap his arm. Everyone noticed her sudden shift in mood as she turned her head to look directly at Sango and Miroku.

"Sango-chan, Miroku, I-I'm sorry for what happened earlier. I'm sorry that I hurt the both of you. I…"

"You don't have to apologize Inukigo-chan." Sango said with a smile, taking Inukigo by surprise.

"Nani? But I…"

"There is no need to apologize." Miroku said as he held up a hand to silence her. "We understand what happened to you, and we don't hold you at fault."

Inukigo was speechless. In front of her were two people, not to mention Inuyasha and Kagome, who she could have very well killed if she had not regained her senses and her youkai blood had remained in control. And they were saying that forgiveness wasn't necessary because they had never blamed her in the first place.

"How is it that all of you can be this way?" she asked regarding the entire group with confusion.

"What do you mean?" Kagome asked.

"How can all of you dismiss this as if it were nothing. If I had stayed that way, I could have killed someone, and all of you are just tossing that fact away as if it doesn't matter. I don't understand how all of you can act like that."

Kagome smiled and leaned forward to place a hand on Inukigo's uninjured shoulder.

"We act like that because we are your friends and we care about you. We understand the circumstances, we know that you couldn't control what you were doing, so we don't blame you for it, even if you blame yourself. From now on, we will always be here for you and we will never abandon you."

Inukigo couldn't believe what she was hearing. She was in total shock. She glanced at the people around her to see that they were all smiling in agreement to what Kagome had said. They reassured her that she had indeed heard the truth. She gave a small smile, and tilted her head downward slightly as to hide her eyes from view.

"Arigatou, Kagome. Arigatou, minna. I don't think that I deserve friendship like this."

"Feh! Baka, of course you do. Why wouldn't you?" Inuyasha said with a smirk on his face as he lightly smacked her in the back of the head.

She turned to face him and glared at him, then smiled widely as she grabbed him around his neck with one arm, pulling him into a headlock, and used her free hand to playfully tweak one of his ears.

"O-ooi, cut that out!" Inuyasha yelled, suppressing laughter at her playful actions and quick mood change. "Let go of me before you open your wounds again and hurt yourself."

"Hai, onii-chan!!" she said in a childlike voice as she released him. She had heard the amused tone in his voice so she knew that he wasn't angry with her, just concerned for her.

Everyone around was either smiling or giggling at the twin hanyous and their actions. Inuyasha let it go, he was in too good a mood to be bothered by his friends' amusement and just smiled along with them. He was glad that Inukigo was acting like herself again. He loved her playful side, and had it not been for her injuries a full out wrestling match would have ensued between the two of them. He was only just realizing how much he had missed her presence and their playful games over the past year.

Inuyasha was so deep into his own little world that he barely heard any of the conversation going on around him.

"So, you're really Inuyasha's sister?" Shippou asked from his spot in Inukigo's lap. He had found that although Inukigo's scent was much the same as Inuyasha's, it was softer and gentler than his was. It comforted him in much the same way as Kagome's did.

"Hai." she replied, a little amused by his question. "Why do you ask?"

"Well, you look and smell enough like him, but you're a whole lot nicer than that idiot."

Inuyasha had heard the idiot comment that Shippou had directed towards him and was instantly pulled out of his thoughts.

"You little runt! Start running!" he yelled as he made to give the little kitsune a good whack over the head, and Shippou took off running. Inuyasha wasn't far behind, and caught up quickly, and gave Shippou a good sized lump.

"KAGOME!!" Shippou yelled in tears.

"Inuyasha…" Kagome said in a voice that was way too calm.

"No, Kagome, w-wait a sec…" Inuyasha tried to plead. Inukigo was really confused by this time.

"Osuwari."

Inuyasha was sent face first into the dirt. Inukigo was shocked.

"What the hell was that?!" she yelled in stunned voice.

"Oh, I forgot you didn't know about the rosary." Kagome said.

"What?"

"When I first met Inuyasha, I had the Shikon no Tama, and he tried to steal if from me. To stop him, Kaede put that rosary around his neck, and every time I say 'o-', that word, well, that happens." she explained, gesturing to Inuyasha, who was just picking himself up off the ground and glaring daggers at Kagome.

"Bitch."

"Oh, urusai." Kagome said, rolling her eyes.

'_Gods, these two fight like an old married couple. I wonder what kind of relationship they have with each other. They seemed awfully close while they were sat next to that tree earlier. I'll have to find out later._' Inukigo said to herself as she watched her brother and Kagome's quarrel.

"Sorry to break up this little squabble," Miroku said, "but, we do have other things to worry about."

"Such as…?" Inuyasha asked impatiently.

"Naraku." he replied simply.

"Oh yeah."

"How did you of all people forget that Naraku could be nearby?"

"I was preoccupied ok?!" Inuyasha yelled in his defence. "Besides, I doubt he hung around once he thought that Inukigo would finish us for him." When he saw Inukigo flinch he regretted bringing the topic up. "Oops." '_She's putting on a brave face, but she's still really upset with herself. It's gonna take awhile for her to get over it completely._'

"Don't worry about it Inuyasha." Inukigo said. Then without warning she began to pick herself up off the ground.

"Hold on a second! I told you that you weren't getting up until I thought that you could."

"I'm fine Inuyasha. Just let me stand up, please?" she said, her voice pleading.

"And just where do you think that you'll go if you stand up? I'm not letting you leave my sight!"

"Inuyasha, onegai, let me be. I'm not going to run away, I promise. I just need to be alone and think for awhile."

"Alright." Inuyasha said reluctantly before helping her to her feet.

"Arigatou." she said quietly as she slowly made her way over to the rock where she saw her shirt laid out. She stumbled a bit at first, but quickly got her bearings and proceeded to pull her shirt on over her head. The action aggravated her wounds, but she ignored it as she tucked her shirt in and fastened the clasps in the front. When she was finished she slowly began to walk towards the edge of the forest. Just before she disappeared into the trees, Inuyasha stopped her.

"Ooi, don't go to far away. I want to be able to find you quickly if anything happens."

She turned to face him with a small smile on her face.

"I won't go far. I just need to be by myself for a little while. If I take too long you can come look for me."

Inuyasha nodded, and Inukigo made her way off into the forest. When she was out of sight Kagome turned to Inuyasha.

"She seems fine on the outside, but she's still suffering because of this. I wonder if she'll be alright."

"She will be, eventually," Inuyasha replied, "But I think it might take her awhile before she truly forgives herself for all of this. All we can do is wait."

Kagome nodded, then turned to look sadly at the spot where Inukigo had entered the forest. Inuyasha was right, all they could do now was wait, and be there for her when she needed them.

Here is one more chapter. This fic is going to end soon, but what I forgot to mention is that I plan for this to be the first fic in a series, which at the moment doesn't have a title, but it will soon. Anyways, this fic was really just to introduce Inukigo. The next fic (which I'm still thinking up) will pick up sometime after this one. I have tons of different ideas (which I'm not gonna tell haha), I'm just not sure what to do first. Oh well, sorry for the wait.

Be sure to visit my site within the next few weeks, cause when I get time, I'm gonna do a section dedicated to Inukigo (so you guys can learn more about her) Sign my guest book to let me know what you think of the site ok? (I keep asking but no one ever does it pouts)

Ja ne!!


	11. Chapter 10: Reflections

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha. This is the eleventh time I've said this. I think I'm starting to repeat myself.

Key:

"Example" = spoken words

'Example' = thoughts

Example = sound effects

= scene change

Chapter 10: Reflections

Inukigo walked aimlessly through the forest, not really caring where she was going at the moment. The promise she had made to Inuyasha about not going to far was in the back of her mind, but she did intend to keep it. She knew that she worried all of them, especially her brother, and she hated to make them feel that way, but she felt as though she needed to get away for a while. She had been reunited with Inuyasha and joined his group just over a day ago, and since then she hadn't had the opportunity to think about everything that had happened in that short amount of time, as well as right before that, without someone crowding her, wondering if she was ok. She really liked having such wonderful friends, but she was unaccustomed to having so many people around her making so much noise, not to mention all the attention that was directed at her. For ten years of her life, Inuyasha was her only companion, the only person who cared for her. Frankly, having four more people and a fire neko worrying about her was making her very nervous.

She had been wandering for about fifteen minutes when she arrived at a small clearing. It was filled with beautiful white flowers, and she breathed deeply, inhaling the sweet, calming scent that they gave off. Spotting a large tree in the centre of the clearing she decided that this would be the perfect place to think and clear her head. She slowly walked towards the tree, picking a flower as she went and bringing it closer to her nose. She closed her eyes for a moment, taking in the peaceful atmosphere, before leaping up into one of the tree's branches and resting against the trunk. The movement caused pain in her stomach and shoulder, by she ignored it.

As she settled onto the branch she sighed and began rolling the small white flower between her fingers, trying to focus her mind on the events of the past day. Unfortunately, the first thing that came to her mind made her growl quietly and instantly crush the flower in her hand - Naraku. She didn't realize how angry it made her to think of him until she heard and felt tree bark cracking beneath her claws. She began relaxing slightly when she began to think of the things she would do to the conniving coward when she got her hands on him. Oh, yes, that bastard was going to pay for everything he had done, not only what he did to her, but also her brother and friends. She vowed right then and there that she would play at least some part in his death, if she didn't kill him with her own hands that is.

After resolving that particular thought, she forced her mind to move on. She then found herself thinking about when she had accused Inuyasha of betraying her. She now felt unbelievably stupid and laughed at herself for ever thinking that. There was no way that he would intentionally do anything to harm her, and she knew it. '_He must have felt so hurt when I turned on him like that._' She began cursing on herself when she felt hot tears running down her face, though she didn't bother to wipe them away since there was no one around to see. She started to think again about what she had done earlier that day, how she had attacked her friends. Sure, they said that they didn't blame her for it, and she believed them, but there was no way she could let it go as easily as they had.

"I could have very well killed them. How can they…how can I forget about that so easily, and just go on and forget about it?" She had started talking to herself, and knew that she was asking herself questions that she already knew the answers to, but paid no heed to it as tears streamed harder down her face in her silent crying.

She hated crying, and she had done more of it in the last day then she had in her entire life. The only other time she remembered crying was when her mother died. She had only been young then, so she felt that she was justified in crying then, but she had never cried since, no matter how badly the tears wanted to fall. She felt weak when she cried, and feared that Inuyasha would think the same of her, since he had never cried, and she definitely didn't want to seem weak to him. At that she began berating herself. She knew that he would never think that of her for simply crying, and with that thought she willed the tears to stop.

"No, that's right. I think that I would have to do more than cry for Inuyasha to lose his faith in me, he's proven that already."

She began to wipe the tears off of her cheeks with the sleeve of her shirt, when a realization struck her and a smile appeared on her face.

"Inuyasha will never lose his faith in me, and neither will the others, even though they have only known me for a very short time. I haven't completely forgiven myself for what has happened, but, I'm not alone. Kagome told me, that they would always be there for me, and now I know that no matter what happens, they won't abandon me."

She leaned back further into the tree and tilted her head up towards the sky. Closing her eyes, she let out a very contented sigh and a smile graced her face. '_I have friends and a brother that will always be here when I need them, and from now on, I'll always be there for them._'

Back at the clearing near the river, Inuyasha, Kagome, Miroku, Sango, and Shippou had proceeded to set up camp, deciding that there was no reason to keep moving since the day was pretty well over and this place was as good as any. The sun was just started to set and the sky was a mixture of bright reds and oranges as Kagome and Sango went about roasting fish that Inuyasha and Shippou had caught earlier over the fire.

Speaking of Inuyasha, said hanyou was becoming rather antsy. He sat near the fire with his legs

in their usual position and his crossed arms hidden within the sleeves of his haori. One leg was bouncing up and down, while he threw occasional glances at a particular area of the forest. All the while Kagome was trying to ignore his impatience, she really was, but she couldn't for much longer. When his actions still hadn't stopped five minutes later, she'd had enough.

"Inuyasha, calm down. She'll be back when she's ready."

"I am calm, I don't know what the hell you're talkin' about."

"Oh please, you've been twitching for the past hour and it's starting to get on my nerves."

"I ain't twitching!" he shot back hotly.

"Then why is your leg bouncing?" she asked calmly.

Inuyasha glared at her for a moment, then realized that she was right and promptly grabbed at his knee in an attempt to hold his leg still. Kagome sighed and grabbed two fish from the fire as she got up to go sit next to him. She handed one of them to him then turned to look at the spot that he had been glancing at.

"Why are you so nervous?"

Inuyasha looked at her, then at the fish that he held in his hand.

"I don't know. I guess, I'm still worried about her."

"She promised that she wouldn't run away, and that you could go looking for her if she took too long."

"I know, that's not why I'm worried. She's never broken a promise to me in her life, so I know that she was telling the truth about that."

"But…?"

"I could sense that she's still upset about what happened earlier. I'm worried that she might let it get the best of her."

"She'll be ok Inuyasha."

He glared and gave her a 'how in the hell do you know that' kind of look.

"She went off to think alone without the distraction of us here worrying about her. Kind of like what you do sometimes, ne?"

Inuyasha didn't answer, just began eating his fish before it got cold.

"She's like you in a lot of ways isn't she." Kagome said, more as a statement than a question, in between bites of her own fish.

Inuyasha looked at her with a mouthful of fish, his face saying 'duh!' Kagome just looked at him a giggled.

"I don't just mean because of the way you look. It's obvious that you're alike in that way. I meant that your personalities are similar."

"Oh? How so?" he asked, laying the stick that his fish had been on down on the grass.

"Well, you're both very strong-willed, loyal, independent, a little stubborn, proud, have volatile tempers…"

"Ok, ok! I get it, we have similar personalities. Except I don't have a volatile temper."

"Oh, is that so?"

"YES!"

"Way to go and prove your point Inuyasha."

"Keh!"

Kagome just sighed and put down the stick she was holding, having finished eating her fish as

well.

"The two of you were really close weren't you Inuyasha?"

Inuyasha was caught of guard by her question but it didn't take him long to give her an answer.

"Aa. We were really close, especially after our mother died. Then it was just the two of us. We relied on each other for everything."

"It was really hard for the two of you growing up wasn't it?"

"Yeah, beyond hard sometimes. You know that there are very few that accept hanyous. But we were always there for each other and protected each other, so that made it a little easier to deal with."

"You're really happy that you've found her, ne?" Kagome asked with a smile on her face as she looked at Inuyasha.

"Yeah." he replied with a smirk as he turned to look at her.

"I'm glad she's with us now too. I'm happy that we're friends, and I hope it stays that way."

Inuyasha just nodded and glanced once more at the forest. Kagome noticed this. '_He's so worried for Inukigo. I hope nothing happens to her. I don't know what that might do to him._'

They sat there in silence for awhile, which was broken by the scream of "HENTAI!," followed by a loud CRACK when Sango's hand met Miroku's face. Inuyasha and Kagome sighed, then Inuyasha got up and started to walk towards the forest.

"Inuyasha? Where are you going?" Kagome asked.

He stopped but did not turn fully to look at her. "I'm going to get Inukigo."

"Do you think that's wise Inuyasha? Maybe you should wait until she's ready to come back on her own." Miroku said as he rubbed his cheek, which now sported a familiar bright red handprint.

"Yeah Inuyasha, she might want to be left alone for a while longer." Sango added.

"She's been gone for hours," Inuyasha said as he turned to look at them. "It's getting dark so I want to go and find her before some other youkai does. I'm not going to force her to come back before she's ready, but I still want to go get her to make sure she's ok."

"That won't be necessary Inuyasha."

Everyone turned towards the voice and saw Inukigo walking out of the forest. They were all relieved to see that she was alright.

"What's with everyone? You all look like you thought I wasn't going to come back. I never knew you all missed me so much." Inukigo said with a smile on her face.

After seeing the happy look on her face, everyone relaxed. They had all been very worried about her. Inukigo walked into the clearing, passed by Inuyasha, who followed her as she walked by, and went to sit down next to Kagome. She sat down slowly, but winched slightly as she put her hand lightly on her stomach. Inuyasha noticed as he came to sit next to her.

"Ooi, daijoubu ka?"

"Yeah, I'm alright. Still wounded though. It'll probably be two or three days before I heal completely."

"You really shouldn't be moving around so much yet. You just got those wounds this morning, and they've only just closed."

"Don't worry so much about it. I know what I can take. It's not like you ever sit and wait for your wounds to heal completely before you start moving around, you still have that wound that I gave you after all, so why do you expect me to?"

"There's a big difference between the wound that you gave me and the wounds that Naraku gave you."

"Like what?!"

"Like, oh I don't know, the fact that you were impaled! The wound you gave me is almost healed already."

"Keh!"

"Ooi!"

Through all of this, the rest of the group was struggling to try to contain their laughter. Seeing this side of Inuyasha was quite humorous. Kagome almost lost it when she heard Inukigo use Inuyasha's famous 'Keh!', and when she saw the look on Inuyasha's face at having it used to dismiss him.

"Alright you two, that's enough." Kagome said in a motherly tone. Both hanyous grumbled a little under their breath, but both stopped arguing.

"That's better. Now, Inukigo, do you want anything to eat? We cooked some fish while you were gone, and I saved some for you."

"Thanks Kagome, I appreciate it and would really like some, but at the moment my stomach isn't up for it."

"Oh, oops. I didn't even think about that."

"It's alright. I'm sorry that you went through the trouble of keeping it for me."

"No problem, it wasn't any trouble. I'm sure that Inuyasha or Shippou will eat it."

"I will! I will!" yelled Shippou from his spot next to Kirara where he had been playing with one

of his toys.

"Ooi, runt." Inuyasha said as he balled up his fist.

"Oh, let him have it Inuyasha. Don't be such a baby." Inukigo said.

"Humph." Inuyasha said, sticking his nose in the air and shoving his arms into the sleeves of his haori.

Inukigo just sighed and shook her head. '_I'm starting to think that he's never gonna grow up._' Inukigo's thoughts were interrupted when she felt a small weight settle in her lap. She looked down to see a wide-eyed Shippou looking up at her. She smiled widely at the young kitsune sitting happily on her lap. '_He's so kawaii!_'

"Thanks for letting me have your fish Inukigo."

"No problem Shippou."

Shippou just smiled back up at her, then settled more comfortably into her lap while he ate his fish. He quickly finished eating the fish, then proceeded to curl up into a ball and fall asleep while Inukigo gently stroked his back. Inuyasha watched her with curiosity out of the corner of his eye. '_I didn't know that she liked little kids._'

"Wow, he took a liking to you rather quickly didn't he?" said Sango as she came to join them.

"He never acts like that with anyone except Kagome-sama." Miroku added, not far behind Sango.

"Really? It's weird though. I've never really been around little kids before."

"I would have thought you were used to it from the way you were acting with him." Kagome said.

Inukigo shook her head. "No, I haven't ever been around children. Human kids would run screaming, and the parents of demon children would try to rip me apart if I got close to them. I guess it's instinct or something."

"Well, he still seems to really like you." Kagome said.

Inukigo nodded. "I guess," she then turned to face Inuyasha. "Despite all the fighting you two do, he must really like you Inuyasha."

Everyone just stared at her with their eyes wide and their mouths hanging open.

"Nani?! You can't be serious. That little runt is a pain in the ass. There's no way that he could like me after all the beatings I've given him over the past year."

"Well he does. There's no other way that he could like me this much in just a day unless he was familiar with my scent and liked it. My scent is almost the same as yours, so in a way he's known my scent for an entire year. If he likes my scent then he obviously likes yours."

"Keh, no way. You don't see him cuddling up to me like he's doin' to you right now."

"Inuyasha, of course he's not going to cuddle up to you. You're male and well…you. He wouldn't feel comfortable doing that. He just feels safer and protected with you around, even if you beat him up sometimes."

Inuyasha opened his mouth to argue but quickly shut it again. He couldn't come with anything. What Inukigo said had made sense. The kit actually liked him. He smiled slightly at the realization, then hid it quickly when he remembered that he hadn't had the last word in their conversation.

"Keh, whatever."

Inukigo just smiled. She had seen the look on his face. '_He likes Shippou too, he's just too proud_

to admit it.'

The group sat there in silence for a while before Kagome stood up and walked over to her backpack.

"It's getting late. I'm going to bed now." she said as she began to unroll her sleeping bag.

"That's a good idea Kagome-chan. I think I'll go to bed too." Sango said.

"If you like, my lovely Sango, you can use me as a pillow." Miroku piped up.

CRACK

"I think I'll pass."

"Hai, hai." Miroku said, now rubbing the fresh, red hand print on his cheek.

While the others were getting ready for bed, Inukigo stood up, cradling Shippou in her arms being very careful not to wake him. She slowly walked over to Kagome who was just climbing into her sleeping bag, and handed Shippou to her.

"I think he would be more comfortable sleeping with you. It might startle him if he wakes up somewhere he's not used to."

"Arigato, good night, Inukigo-chan."

"Good night, Kagome-chan." Inukigo replied. She then walked off to the edge of the forest looking for a tree to sleep in. She had just found one and was about to jump up when she was interrupted by a hushed voice behind her.

"What are you doing? You should be sleeping on the ground."

"Inuyasha, stop treating me like a baby." she said with an annoyed tone in her voice, though she

kept quiet for the sake of her other friends.

"You shouldn't be jumping around with that hole in your stomach. You should just sleep on the ground."

"No way. I haven't slept in a tree in a long time and I miss it."

"But you might hurt yourself."

"Aww…I didn't know you cared so much." she teased.

"Of course I care. You're my sister, baka."

"Well, thank you for your concern, but I'm fine. I'm in good enough condition so that I can jump into a tree."

"You don't know that."

"Yes I do. I jumped into one while I was gone, and as you can see, I'm perfectly alright."

"Ok, ok. You can sleep in the stupid tree."

"Arigatou." she said as she turned and jumped into the tree. It irritated her wounds slightly, and she clutched lightly at her stomach while she waited for the pain to subside. She was just settling onto the branch when she felt a presence behind her. Looking around the trunk of the tree, she spotted Inuyasha's red haori.

"Inuyasha, why are you in the same tree as me? I told you that I was fine."

"That's not the only reason I'm up here. This is the only tree in the clearing big enough to sit in."

Inukigo just sighed and turned back around with a small smile on her face.

"Good night, brother."

Inuyasha smirked slightly.

"Good night, sister."


	12. Chapter 11: A Sword by any Other Name

Chapter 11: A Sword by Any Other Name

Inukigo's ears began twitching as she woke to the sound of birds chirping in the trees around her. She opened her eyes lazily to protect them from the sun and yawned widely. She began to stretch, but stopped as a slight pain shot through her stomach and shoulder. '_Stupid wounds._' she cursed inwardly. '_These are gonna be a pain in the ass for the next few days._'

While thinking about her wounds, Inukigo remembered that her brother had been sharing the tree with her. She turned to look around the trunk of the tree, and sure enough, there was Inuyasha's bright red haori. '_So, he's still there._' She stilled for a moment, twitching her ears. '_From the sound of his breathing, he's still asleep. Hmm…I could have a bit of fun with this._' she thought as a sly smile spread across her face. '_I wonder if I can still sneak up on him._' Inukigo slowly stood up on the branch that she had been sitting on careful not to make a sound. A quick check verified that Inuyasha had not heard her move and was still fast asleep. She smiled again, then looked up to find a suitable branch that she could move to. When she spotted one she jumped up to it quickly, being careful to remain silent. She then quietly made her way around the tree, until she was standing on a branch directly above Inuyasha. Inukigo then carefully lowered herself onto the branch so that she had her legs wrapped around the branch and was facing the tree. She then tipped to the side, and let herself hang upside-down from the branch, which resulted in her face being directly in front of Inuyasha's. She held her breath so he wouldn't hear her or feel it on his face. Then, she just waited, and stared.

Inuyasha suddenly felt as though someone was watching him. Being a light sleeper, he heard everything around him, so the feeling was slightly confusing. '_I didn't hear anyone get up, and there aren't any demons nearby, so who's staring at me?_' Inuyasha was starting to get curious, so he started to reach out with his sense of smell and his hearing.

Inukigo noticed Inuyasha's nose and ears twitching. '_So, he's waking up. He must feel my stare. Took him long enough to notice._'

Inuyasha confirmed that no one was awake and that there was no danger around, yet there was still the unnerving feeling of being watched. He decided to get up so he could determine what was giving him that weird feeling. He slowly started to open his eyes, keeping them out of the sun until they adjusted to the light. His vision was blurry, and as he started to blink to clear them, he could swear that he saw two eyes looking back at him.

Inukigo couldn't stop the grin from coming across her face as she saw Inuyasha's eyes flutter open. '_Finally, I was starting to think I would be waiting here all day. Now, before he has a chance to focus on me…_' Inukigo slowly tilted her head so that her mouth was directly in line with one of his ears. She then took a deep breath, which Inuyasha noticed a little to late, and,

"GOOD MORNING ONII-CHAN!!!!!"

"HUH?! WHA…" Inuyasha's eyes shot open from surprise, and unfortunately Inukigo's yell caused him to lose his balance. With arms and legs flailing, Inuyasha fell from the tree and landed headfirst with a thud.

"Kuso…" Inuyasha swore as he rolled to sit up, rubbing his head. A soft giggle directed his attention back up to the tree, where his sister still hung from the tree branch. He shot an annoyed glare at her, to which she just shrugged and folded her arms behind her head. She looked down at him, then let go of the branch she was hanging from. As she fell headfirst, she reached out with one hand and caught herself on the branch that Inuyasha had been sleeping on. She swung down from the branch and landed on her feet in a crouch in front of him.

"Did you sleep well?" she asked in a playful voice.

"I was, until someone rudely woke me up." he replied in a rather annoyed voice.

"Yes, we were all sleeping well until that happened too." came a voice from a few feet away.

Inuyasha and Inukigo looked to see everyone one else in the camp awake, all with rather perturbed looks on their faces. Inukigo stood up straight and rubbed the back of her neck as she gave a nervous laugh.

"Eh, he…gomen, I didn't mean to wake everyone up."

"Baka, what did you think would happen if you yelled like that?" Inuyasha said as he stood up beside his sister.

"Well EXCUSE me for not thinking it through first." Inukigo shot back. She then folded her arms in front of her and pouted. "I just wanted to wake you up the way that I used to."

A look of understanding crossed Inuyasha's face before he broke out into a smile.

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot about your wakeup calls."

"You mean that she does that on a regular basis?" asked Kagome.

"And you let her get away with it?" asked Shippou.

"Feh, hardly. I always get her back for it. Which reminds me…" Inuyasha said as he turned to face Inukigo, "Don't think that I'm gonna forget that one. I'll pay you back for it when your wounds heal."

"I wouldn't expect anything less from you Inuyasha." Inukigo said, smirking.

"Alright," said Kagome, cutting into the discussion. "Seeing as we're all awake, who wants breakfast?"

"Ooi runt! Get back here with that!!" Inuyasha yelled as he chased Shippou around the campgrounds.

"No way! You had enough! I want the extra one!!" Shippou yelled back.

At the moment, both youkai were running circles around their companions fighting over…a fish. One fish. The rest of the group sighed in exasperation as they watched the two quarrel. Inukigo was sitting with her own fish in her hand, and her eyebrow twitching. As Inuyasha and Shippou came running by her, she reached out and grabbed Inuyasha's hakama, effectively dragging him to the ground.

"Ooi! Why the hell did you do that?!"

"I did it because you were getting on my nerves. Let Shippou have that stupid fish. Here, you can have mine." she said as she thrust the fish at him.

"I'm not taking your food from you. You haven't eaten anything since early yesterday."

"Don't argue with me and just take it. I can't eat it anyways."

"But you told Kagome you could eat one when she asked you."

"Well, I've discovered that my stomach isn't ready to handle food yet. It's making me feel sick just thinking about eating it. Gomen, Kagome. It's not because of your cooking."

"That's ok."

"Anyways, just take the fish Inuyasha. You might as well, since you won't be getting the other one from Shippou now."

Inuyasha turned to see Shippou sitting with a smug look on his face as he popped the last of the fish into his mouth.

"You're being sneaky. You were just stalling for him weren't you?"

"Well, yeah. That and I was getting sick of watching you chase him around. Now, do you want this, or will Shippou get this one too?" Inukigo said with a smirk as she waved the fish in front of Inuyasha's face.

"Alright." he said as he took the fish from her. "You're sure that you don't want it?"

"Hai, I'm sure. Have I ever been one to give you food if I really wanted it?"

"No, but it would be better if you ate something."

"Inuyasha, you know that I can go for days without food if I have to. Besides, I already told you that my stomach is not healed enough to handle food yet. I thought that it was, but it's not. Don't worry about it so much." she said as she smiled at him. '_I'm really glad that he worries for me, but it's really starting to get on my nerves!_'

"Ok, ok." Inuyasha said as he began to eat the fish.

"Finally. I thought that you were never going to stop arguing over that stupid fish."

"Shut the fuck up, bouzu."

"Such language, Inuyasha, and in the presence of three lovely ladies," Miroku said as he crept his way over to the girls, aiming to sit between Sango and Inukigo. They saw him coming, and Inukigo caught him before Sango had the chance to get to him first.

"Come any closer to me bouzu, and I swear that you won't be conscious for a fuckin' week."

Miroku, along with every other member of the group caught the look in her eye, and knew that she was dead serious with her threat. He held up his hands in a defensive gesture and stopped where he was. Inukigo glared at him for a few seconds, then sighed and made to lie down on the ground on her back, but something pressing into her side made the action uncomfortable. Reaching to her right side, she felt the hilt of the sword that Inuyasha had attached to her hip the day before. She sat up straight again, with her hand still on the hilt of the sword. She had forgotten all about it after Inuyasha had strapped it to her waist and told her its purpose. As she turned more of her attention to the sword she realized something - she didn't know what the sword was called.

"Ne, Inuyasha…"

Inuyasha turned to look at her while still eating his fish. He gave a small grunt to show he was listening and Inukigo continued.

"Your sword is called Tessaiga, right?" He gave a small nod to say yes. "Well, do you have any idea what my sword is called?"

Inuyasha thought for a moment as he swallowed a mouthful of fish, then shook his head no.

"Nope, I don't know what that sword is called. I didn't even know it existed until you separated it from Tessaiga."

Inukigo turned her attention back to the sword, then sighed and dropped her hand to the ground.

"Oh well, I guess it doesn't really matter that much. It won't get much use in battles anyway."

"Huh? Why not?" Kagome asked as she looked at Inukigo curiously. Inukigo opened her mouth to answer, but Inuyasha beat her to it.

"She won't use it 'cause she sucks at wielding a sword."

At that statement Inukigo was fuming.

"I do NOT suck at wielding a sword."

"Yeah, you do." Inuyasha replied calmly.

"You're just saying that because you know that you're better than me at it."

"Yeah, so? It still means that you suck."

"Ok then, if I suck at wielding a sword, then YOU suck at hand-to-hand combat."

Now it was Inuyasha's turn to fume.

"I do not!"

"Of course you do. If I suck at fighting with a sword because you're better at it than me, then you must suck at hand-to-hand 'cause that's something I can do better than you."

"You are not better than me in hand-to-hand combat."

"I am and you know it."

"Keh!"

The truth was, Inuyasha did know it. When it came to fighting with nothing but the body, Inukigo could kick his ass, hands down. He just didn't want the others to know that. Inukigo smirked at his response, but let the matter drop. Unfortunately, a young kitsune found the topic of the conversation to be quite interesting. He bounded over to Inukigo, climbed up onto her lap, and looked up at her curiously.

"You can really beat Inuyasha up when you fight without a sword? I'd like to see that."

Inukigo looked down at the kit, and found it hard not to smile at his innocent curiosity, and his comment about wanting to see Inuyasha get beat up.

"Hai, I can," she paused when she was interrupted by a 'Keh!' but kept going. "As for a demonstration, I think you'll have to wait until I'm fully healed. I doubt that Inuyasha would agree to a sparring match with me if he thinks I'll get hurt."

"Aww…darn. I really wanted to see you beat him up."

"Oi, runt! Keep it up and you'll be the one beat up, not me." Inuyasha yelled, shaking his fist to emphasise his point.

At the threat, Shippou took off to the safety of Kagome's arms and immediately started to act as though he was scared for his life.

"Inu-ya-sha…" Kagome said with a rather annoyed look on his face.

"Kagome, no, Kagome don't…" was all Inuyasha could get out before he got cut off by what he saw coming.

"Osuwari." Kagome said calmly, causing Inuyasha to come into contact with the dirt for the second time that morning, except this time he was lying in the bottom of a very Inuyasha-like crater. Inukigo crawled over to peer at her brother's fallen form.

"I don't think that you need me to beat up Inuyasha, Shippou. Kagome does that all on her own."

The others didn't say anything, although they did have rather amused looks on their faces, as they nodded their agreement. Inuyasha chose this moment to pick himself up off the ground and glare at Kagome.

"Bitch, what the hell was that for?"

Inukigo turned to her brother in shock and just stared at him. '_D-does he realize how he just referred to her?_'

"You know very well why I said it Inuyasha, so don't bother asking."

"Keh!" Inuyasha turned to his sister, noticing that she was staring at him intently. He found it kind of unnerving. "Nanda, Inukigo?"

Hearing her name, Inukigo jumped back to reality. "Huh? Oh, nothing. Don't worry about it Inuyasha."

Inuyasha looked at her for a moment, then shrugged and went back to pestering Kagome. Inukigo sat there silently, watching the two as they bickered.

'_There is definitely something between them, I know that for sure now. But I wonder, how deep does it go? Maybe I can ask Sango later if I can get her alone. Huh, if Inuyasha is trying to hide his affection for Kagome, he isn't doing a very good job. I don't think that the moron realizes that he's half dog demon. Calling her bitch is as good as any term of endearment. He's such a baka!_' Inukigo thought as she continued to stare at her brother out of the corner of her eye.

All was quiet for a few moments, until there was a small sound from somewhere in the distance.

"Is that a crow?" Sango said questioningly.

"That's what it sounded like." Miroku replied.

No one thought anything more of it until a small cry was heard.

"Inuyasha-sama!"

"Huh, what's that?" Inukigo asked as everyone looked around trying to find out which direction the voice was coming from. Suddenly, Inuyasha got a rather irritated look on his face and smacked his hand against the side of his neck.

"What the hell do you want, Myoga-jiji?"

"In-u-yasha-sama." Myoga said as he floated down into Inuyasha's hand.

"Did you say that it was Myoga-ji?" Inukigo asked as she moved closer to inspect the contents of Inuyasha's hand. Just then a previously flattened Myoga puffed up to his original size.

"Inuyasha-sama, I heard a rumour that you found Inukigo-sama. I came to see if it was true, and to tell you some valuable information if it was."

"Well, if you want to see if it's true, turn around and see for yourself."

Myoga did as he was told and turned around, coming face to face with Inukigo who happened to be staring at him intently.

"Yo, Myoga-ji."

"Inukigo-sama!" Myoga yelled as he promptly jumped from Inuyahsa's hand and onto Inukigo's nose, where he proceeded to help himself to a mid-morning snack. "It's so good to see you again. Where have you been for the past 50 years? I didn't know what happened to you after…"

SMACK

"It's good to see you too, Myoga-ji." Inukigo said dryly as she caught the - once again - flat Myoga in her hand. "For your information, I was sealed as well and was only released two days ago. By the way, how did you find out that I was back so quickly?"

"News travels quickly among the animals in the forest. A crow came to me at Totusai's yesterday and told me that a female inu-hanyou that looked just like Inuyasha had joined his group, and I immediately devised that it was you."

"Yeah, that's great Myoga-jiji, but you said that you had some important information if Inukigo was here. As you can see, she is, so spill it."

"Ah, yes. Totusai heard that there was a possibility of Inukigo being back with you, and informed me of a third sword that your father had crafted from one of his fangs for her. He told me that he was instructed to fuse it into the Tessaiga, and that to remove it all that needed to be done was for yourself and Inukigo to hold it at the same time."

"Thanks for the information Myoga-ji, but we already figured that out." Inukigo said, motioning to her hip.

"Huh? You did? How did you manage to figure that out?"

"Well…it was sort of an accident."

"An accident?"

"Yeah, Inukigo became a full demon, we didn't have anyway to change her back so I thought 'we have the same blood, so maybe Tessaiga will work,' I put it in her hand, she changed back and her sword appeared. There, end of story." Inuyasha said quickly, not wanting to bring up the events of the day before for fear of upsetting Inukigo again.

"Well, this is unexpected. I guess that I'll be on my way again then. It was good to see you again, Inukigo-sama."

"Matte, Myoga-ji."

"Hai, Inukigo-sama?"

"Do you happen to know anything else about this sword?"

"The only things that I know about it are that its name is Touitsaiga, and that it has the ability to use the 'Kaze no Kizu,' just as Tessaiga. If you want to know more, you'll have to go see Toutusai about it."

"Ok. Arigatou, Myoga-ji."

"If I am no longer needed, then I'll be on my way back to Totusai's."

"Yeah, yeah, Myoga-jiji. Get going already." And with that, the flea demon disappeared from sight.

"Well," Inukigo said after he was gone, "little bloodsucker hasn't changed at all has he?"

"Nope, still always tryin' to grab a quick meal." Inuyasha replied.

"At least he managed to supply some information about this sword." Inukigo said, turning her attention to the sword at her hip.

"So," Miroku piped up, "the sword's name is Touitsaiga. I wonder what other abilities it has besides the 'Kaze no Kizu?'"

"'Kaze no Kizu?' Myoga-ji said that Tessaiga uses that too. What is that Inuyasha?" Inukigo asked.

"It's an attack that strikes the place where clouds of youki or jyaki meet. If it's used right it can destroy 100 demons in one strike."

"Sugoi. That's a lot of power for one sword to have."

"Maybe you should learn how to use it, Inukigo-chan. It might come in handy later." Sango suggested.

"You might be right Sango-chan. What do you say Inuyasha? Are you gonna show me how to use the 'Kaze no Kizu?'"

"Yeah, seeing as I'm soooo much better with a sword than you, I guess I'll have to teach you how to use it properly."

"Uhh, not this again." Kagome said as she and the others sighed and shook their heads.

"Grrr…you just wait 'til my stomach heals up, baka."

"Keh, I'm lookin' forward to it. Then I can show everyone how much stronger and more skilled I am compared to you."

"That's it," Inukigo said as she got to her feet and cracked her knuckles, "Forget the wounds, I'm gonna take care of you right now!" she yelled as she started to advance on Inuyasha.

Inuyasha, despite his earlier confidence, was now looking kind of scared as his sister came to stand in front of him.

"Inukigo, c-calm down. Remember your wounds, they only closed up yesterday. You wouldn't want to hurt yourself again right?"

"Oh, I think it will be well worth it to see the look on your face. How about we show the others how I used to win all of our fights when we were little."

At this Inuyasha paled. "No, Inukigo anything but that please," but Inukigo showed no signs of stopping.

"No, Inukigo, DDDDOOOONNNN'TTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Well, there's Chapter 11, finally! I am sooo sorry that it took so long to finish, but I had a lot of stuff going on with school, like studying and taking final exams (that's one of the good things about university, you get out for summer really early). I've started chapter 12 already, which will be the last chapter to 'Long Awaited Reunion.' Once I finish that I'll be starting the next fic in the series, which as of right now, I don't have a title for. But it will be up soon, seeing as I don't have much else to be doing now. Chapter 12 won't take so long as this one did, so it should be up some time early next week at the latest (if I get more reviews than it could be faster hint hint)


	13. Chapter 12: Welcome Home

Chapter 12: Welcome Home

It was a short time later that the group had set out to return to Kaede's village, and were now on a path leading out of the forest. One member in particular, however, was not in good spirits.

"Oh, c'mon Inuyasha, it's not that bad." Kagome said as she tried to keep from laughing at the hanyou's current predicament.

"Keh!!"

At the moment, Inuyasha was walking a little ahead of the group, so as to hide the slight blush on his face and regain some of his dignity. Inukigo had succeeded in thoroughly embarrassing him.

"Stop pouting Inuyasha. It's your own fault for bragging." Inukigo said as she came to walk beside her brother. She hadn't expected him to be this embarrassed over her little 'punishment,' but she felt that he deserved it, so it didn't really bother her.

"Keh! I ain't pouting, and I wasn't bragging."

"Oh, for Kami's sake Inuyasha, you WERE bragging, you ARE pouting, now stop being such a baby, or do I have to rub your ears again?"

At this, Inuyasha's face reddened and he shut up. No way did he want her to do that again.

'_Of all the things she could have done, she just had to rub my ears. It's so damn embarrassing._'

He thought back to about only half an hour ago. When Inukigo had mentioned 'how she used to win their fights when they were little,' he had instantly known what she was planning to do. He had silently prayed to any Kami that was listening that he was wrong, but unfortunately it seemed as though the Kamis were out to get him. His sister had proceeded to rub his ears, which resulted in him becoming totally placid. His body slumped, his eyes drooped, and he got a really dopey grin on his face as his brain went off to la la land chasing butterflies. What made it worse is that when she decided he'd had enough, he whimpered and followed her hand looking for more. He'd snapped out of it when he heard the rest of his friends giggling, and he'd been red in the face ever since.

'_Kami knows that I do like having my ears rubbed, but did she really have to do it in front of everyone? It's bad enough that they know I'm ticklish._' He was brought out of his thoughts by a light touch on his right ear. He looked over to see his sister smiling at him, and couldn't help but smile slightly himself. '_I've missed her smile._'

"Now, that's much better," she commented when she saw his mouth turn up slightly. "Inuyasha, I'm not sorry for rubbing your ears, but I am sorry for making you so embarrassed. I really didn't think that you would feel that way around your friends."

"Our friends," he corrected her.

"Our friends," she agreed. "Besides, I don't think you have to feel that way about it anymore."

"Why's that?"

"They've all forgotten about it, so I don't think that you need to be embarrassed anymore."

Inuyasha looked at her questioningly before turning slightly to observe his friends, discovering that things had indeed completely returned to normal. Miroku was walking beside Sango, busy trying to cop a feel every few moments, and Sango was busy keeping his hand from coming in to contact with her ass. Kagome was talking with Shippou and laughing occasionally as he told her stories and showed her small tricks with his fox magic. He turned back around with a slight smile on his face.

"Of course," Inukigo said, drawing his attention, "that doesn't mean we won't use it on you later."

She had a sly grin on her face and a playful glint in her eye and Inuyasha couldn't help but play along with her teasing.

"Why you…I'll get you for that."

"You can try."

"Are you challenging me?"

"Maybe…"

"Then I won't hesitate to accept."

"I would expect nothing less from you, Inuyasha."

"Come here!" Inuyasha yelled as he made a grab for his sister. '_Heh, I'm not the only one who's ticklish._'

"No way! You're gonna have to catch me!" Inukigo laughed as she dodged Inuyasha's hands.

And so the two hanyous began bounding around the path like a pair of puppies.

"Well, would you look at that," Miroku said as he watched the twin half demons jump around in front of the rest of the group as they walked.

CRACK

"Looking at that is not going to make me ignore THAT, Houshi-sama." Sango gritted out.

"Hai, hai, Sango." Miroku replied, while rubbing the throbbing red hand print on his cheek.

"Still Sango-chan, just look at them. They look so light-hearted, and I've never seen Inuyasha so happy before."

"I have to agree with you Kagome-chan. They look like they're having a lot of fun just jumping around like a couple of pups."

"Yeah, and look," Shippou piped up, "it looks like Inuyasha's gonna catch Inukigo."

All members of the group turned their attention back to the two hanyous when a squeal was heard from Inukigo, who had been tackled, albeit gently, to the ground by her brother.

"Alright Inuyasha, you won. Let me up now."

"No, I don't think I will just yet," then a little quieter so that she was the only one who could hear him, "I think that I'll show the others that I'm not the only one of us who's ticklish. What do you think?" he asked before he began to attack her ribs, being careful to avoid her still healing injuries.

"Iie, Inu-haha-yasha!! ha St-haha-op!! Stop it!" Inukigo screamed breathlessly.

"Nope!" Inuyasha laughed as he continued to tickle her relentlessly.

"Onegai…onii-chan?" Inukigo said, in hopes that calling him big brother would get him to let her up.

Inuyasha stopped tickling her and stood up with a huge grin on his face, which irked Inukigo to no end. He then grabbed her hands to help her to her feet, all the while keeping a triumphant smirk on his face.

"I'll get you for that." Inukigo threatened as she crossed her arms and pouted.

"I know you will." Inuyasha laughed as he kept walking.

Inukigo glared at his back for a few moments before shaking her head and following him, both hanyous oblivious to the barely contained laughter emanating from their companions.

"Kagome, where's its shard?!" Inuyasha yelled as he dodged the razor edge tail of the giant snake youkai they were fighting. '_The thing is fast for being so damn big._'

Kagome looked the youkai over, searching for the tell-tale pink light of a shikon shard before shouting out her reply.

"It's in its forehead Inuyasha!!"

"Inuyasha, can I fight it yet?!" Inukigo whined from the sidelines with Kagome and Shippou.

"I said NO, Inukigo! You can't fight in the condition you're in. You'll just end up hurting yourself." Inuyasha yelled back.

"Humph." '_You say that, but I bet YOU would be fighting in my condition if the situations were reversed._'

"Don't worry, Inukigo," Shippou said from Kagome's shoulder, "you'll get to fight the next time we run into a youkai with a shard."

"But I wanted to fight now. I haven't had a good fight in fifty years…don't look at me that way. The fights over the last two days don't count, I wasn't in my right mind. Besides, I want some excise other than me and Inuyasha chasing one another around."

Kagome looked at the disgruntled hanyou with sympathy. '_Poor Inukigo-chan. She's desperate for some kind of confrontation where she gets to beat something up. She is so similar to Inuyasha that way that it's scary, even if they are twins._' Then she got an idea.

"Inukigo-chan, why don't you just wait until Inuyasha, Miroku-sama, Sango-chan, and Kirara get the shard, then you can fight the snake youkai. I'm sure Inuyasha wouldn't worry about you getting hurt then. The youkai isn't all that strong, so it should be fine."

"I would be happy with that, even though the youkai isn't that strong and wouldn't be much of a challenge without the shard. But I still don't think that he'll let me. I swear, he's never been this protective of me before. I mean, of course he would worry about me and take care of me when I got hurt, but he never acted this way before."

"I think that he just really missed you and now that you're back he doesn't want anything bad to happen to you." Kagome replied with a smile on her face.

"I guess," Inukigo replied as she contemplated Kagome's theory. "Ooi! Inuyasha! Can I fight the youkai after you get the shard out?!" Inukigo yelled to her brother.

"NO!!"

"Didn't think so," Inukigo sighed dejectedly. '_Guess I really am going to have to wait until next time._' She thought as she dropped her head in defeat and Kagome patted her on the back reassuringly.

"Inukigo, Kagome, watch out!!"

"Huh?" both girls looked up to see what Inuyasha was yelling about, only to see the huge snake youkai barrelling towards them. Apparently, it thought that the two women and the kitsune were off to the side of the battle because they were too weak to fight, and decided that it would go after them. Kagome just stared at it, unable to move from shock, while Inukigo shifted into a fighting stance with a huge grin on her face.

'_Looks like I'm gonna be a part of this fight after all._' "Move it Kagome-chan." Inukigo said hurriedly as she gave the other girl a slight push to get her going. Kagome didn't need to be told twice and instantly took off out of the way. Inukigo cracked her knuckles and flexed her claws as she crouched lower, ready to spring at the snake youkai once it got close enough.

"Inukigo! What the hell are you doing?!" Inuyasha shouted as he tried to catch up with the youkai before it reached his injured sister.

"What's it look like I'm doing, baka?!" Inukigo screamed back. At that moment the youkai reared back as it prepared to strike at her with its poison fangs. Inukigo smirked at its attitude. '_Stupid snake. I've seen your speed. Even with that shard and my injuries I'm still fast enough to avoid you._' With that she jumped at the youkai with such force and speed that a huge dust cloud was kicked up behind her. The youkai had chosen the exact same moment to strike at her. They looked as if they would collide head on before Inukigo twisted slightly in mid-air at the last second, allowing her to dodge the youkai's head entirely and put her in the perfect position to end its life quickly as they flew by each other.

"Hikari shou Tessou!!" she yelled as brought her raised hand down on the youkai. Her claws lengthened slightly and began to glow with power like Inuyasha's claws when he used his 'Sankon Tessou,' however, where his claws let off golden yellow energy, hers emanated a shimmering, almost blinding, white light, which cleanly cut through the snake youkai, effectively beheading it. Both pieces dropped heavily to the ground, while Inukigo landed lightly beside it. The others, well, except Inuyasha, who mumbled something that sounded strangely like 'show-off,' looked at her in awe as she casually flicked her claws.

Sango, who was dressed in her exterminator clothing with Hiraikatsu slung on her back, came over to stand beside Kagome.

"You know, she may be a whole lot like Inuyasha, but after seeing that I can say that I see Sesshomaru in her as well."

"I'd say," Kagome replied.

Inuyasha snorted to himself as he went to retrieve the shard. He heard their comments, and he knew what they meant by them. Inukigo, like Sesshomaru, was very graceful when she was fighting. He had already known that. '_Graceful._' He scoffed at that. Big deal. Being graceful didn't have anything to do with battle. It just made you look pretty while you were fighting. To him, a fight was just about beating the crap out of who you were fighting, not how you looked while doing it. He had told Inukigo that much once. She had proceeded to lecture him about how it saved movements and helped conserve energy in a fight. He had said that he thought that was a load of bullshit. She had just sighed and told him that he was hopeless, then proceeded to beat the shit out of him in a sparring match to prove her point. He still thought it was a load of bullshit.

As he cut the shard from the snake youkai's head he glanced over to his sister, who hadn't moved from the spot where she had landed after her jump. She was stretching experimentally while carefully inspecting her midsection and shoulder. '_Did she hurt herself? Keh, I told her that she would._'

"Ooi, Inukigo! You hurt?!" he called to her after he gave the Shikon shard to Kagome.

"Iie, Inuyasha! I'm fine!" she yelled back as she turned to walk towards them.

"You sure?" Inuyasha asked as he raised one eyebrow and looked at her suspiciously.

She gave him an annoyed look and rolled her eyes.

"Inuyasha, do you smell any blood on me?" He gave a quick sniff, then shook his head no. "And

do you smell any pain coming off of me at all?" Another sniff, and another head shake. "Well, I guess that means that I'm fine, doesn't it?"

"Keh!"

Inukigo just ignored him. She was in a rather good mood and wasn't about to let him ruin it.

"Well Inukigo," Miroku piped up, "I must say that although you are Inuyasha's twin, you greatly resemble Sesshomaru in the way you choose to fight."

Good mood effectively ruined.

"So I've been told." Inukigo muttered darkly.

"Huh, Inukigo-chan? Is something wrong?" Kagome asked.

"I just don't like being compared to him. It's nothing that any of you need to concern yourselves over. Just forget about it." Inukigo replied, a little harshly. She then began to walk away from the group in the direction that they had been heading towards the village. "We should keep moving so we reach the village before it gets dark."

Kagome was about to press further, but a nudge from Inuyasha caught her attention. She looked at him and he shook his head - this was not something to be questioned right now. Kagome nodded her head in understanding, but told herself that she would ask about it again later.

With silence heavy in the air, the rest of the group of shard hunters began to follow the female hanyou on the path towards their destination.

About two hours after the encounter with the snake youkai, the group was still walking towards the village, although the demons of the group could now smell it so they would be able to see it momentarily. The awkward silence that had befallen them earlier had been broken by Inukigo a little over an hour and a half ago. She had suddenly stopped, turned around, and threw her hands into the air, complaining about how quite everyone was, completely forgetting that she was the one who had brought it on in the first place. None of them dared to mention that, believing that she was now acting very much like Inuyasha and didn't want to endure a tantrum.

So now they walked together, chatting idly, Inuyasha and Inukigo in front with Kagome between them and Shippou clinging tightly to her shoulder while Miroku and Sango walked a short ways behind with Kirara in the same position as Shippou on Sango's shoulder.

Inukigo was lost in her thoughts for a moment, not really listening to the conversations going on around her. She knew that they would be at the village soon. Not only could she smell it, and see the faint wisps of smoke from the huts in the village, but she also remembered exactly where it was. She could have found it even without her youkai senses leading her. The area hadn't really changed in fifty years, except for the occasional new path made by travelling merchants, or abandoned battlefields left over from the wars. Thinking about how little things had changed brought a question to Inukigo's mind.

"Ne, Inuyasha?"

Inuyasha was brought out of his small argument with Shippou by his sister's voice.

"Nani, Inukigo?"

Inukigo kept her gaze trained on the path ahead of her as she asked him her question.

"The villagers, do they…accept you?"

"Nanda?"

"Do the villagers accept you as a hanyou?"

Inuyasha thought for a moment before giving her an answer.

"Well, sort of. They're afraid of youkai, and since I'm part youkai there is some distrust there, but it's gotten better over the past year since I've been protecting the village. They don't fear me as much and aren't as ignorant towards me as they used to be."

"So, the villagers don't mind you being in the village?"

Inuyasha just shrugged.

"Don't know. If they do they don't say anything."

"Why are you asking this stuff Inukigo-chan?" Kagome asked.

Inukigo turned her gaze to the younger girl walking to her left.

"I wanted to know if the villagers would complain about me being there. I don't want to stay in the village if I'm going to be a bother to them."

"Keh. Who cares if they don't want you there. Not like they can really do anything about it."

"**_I _**care Inuyasha," Inukigo replied haughtily as she glared at her brother, "I'm not going to make humans feel uncomfortable in their own village, in their **_home_**, where they should feel safe. That would be heartless, and I wouldn't feel right doing something like that."

Inuyasha didn't answer her, just nodded and turned his attention back to the path. '_Should've known. She's always been that way, not wanting to cause trouble with anyone who didn't cause her trouble first. Except me that is._'

"I don't think you'll have to worry much about that sort of thing, Inukigo-chan." Sango said.

"I agree with Sango. The villagers here seemed to be more inclined to accept demons that mean them no harm. Having Inuyasha, Shippou, and Kirara in the village constantly over the past year has shown them that not all demons are bloodthirsty, human-hating monsters. They may be a little wary of you at first because you are new, but I'm sure that will pass quickly." Miroku added.

"Yeah, Inukigo. And we'll all back you up too, so the villagers know that you're a good demon." Shippou said.

'_That won't save me from the disgust that most of them probably have against hanyous, but I can deal with that. I have for my entire life._' "Arigatou, minna," Inukigo replied with a smile on her face. She then sighed, "I just hope that you guys are right about this."

"Well, Inukigo-chan, looks like you're about to find out." Kagome said happily.

"Huh?" Inukigo replied, then looked in front of her. They were at the edge of the village. She had been so caught up in her thoughts and the conversation that she hadn't noticed that they come so close to it. "I guess I am." '_Guess it's now or never._'

"Stop looking so worried. Everything will be fine." Inuyasha said.

Inukigo still looked unsure.

"Inukigo-chan, don't be so worried. Inuyasha's right, everything will be fine. Now, let's do this properly," Kagome stated as she walked in front of Inukigo and turned to face her. Inukigo was confused as Kagome looked her in the eye and smiled widely.

"Welcome home, Inukigo-chan."

Inukigo's eyes widened as a look of shock came across her face.

"H-home?"

"Yes home, baka. What else would it be?" Inuyasha asked tolerantly.

Inukigo's mouth opened and closed a few times before she realized she had nothing to say. She hadn't known what to call it. She just started smiling along with everyone else, and they continued on their way to Kaede's hut.

'_Home, I guess that would be the right thing to call it, but, I've never really thought of any one place as home. Not for a very long time. My home was wherever Inuyasha was. It's the same now, except there are my friends as well. So, this place will be my home, as long as Inuyasha, Kagome-chan, Sango-chan, Miroku, Shippou, and Kirara are with me. Wherever I go, I'll be home, as long as they are by my side._'

I am home.

The End

Chapter 12, finally! I really enjoyed writing this, but to tell you the truth, I'm glad that I finished, 'cause I want to get into my other stories. I left a few loose ends purposely, and they'll be tied up later. I can't believe it's done! I can't wait to get started on the next story. Sorry, no preview, 'cause I have a few different stories floating around in my head, and I'm not sure what order they should go in. So, you'll have to wait laughs evilly. I am trying to work up my courage to write an R-rated fic, mainly cause it fits with some of my ideas, the main one being Inuyasha and Kagome getting together. Well, that's all for now, it may be a couple of weeks before my next fic makes an appearance. I want to write a few chapters before I start posting so the same thing that happened with this fic doesn't happen again (meaning, I don't want to be really behind in my chapters, like I was when writing this fic).


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